Wonderland
by Fire Night Sky
Summary: After a fire that took the life of his parents and sister, Mekt has fell into a catatonic state for almost ten years. However, he finds himself returning to Wonderland, which is no longer the place it was when he last visited. Will he manage to salvage it along with his mind? Or will he remain stuck in his madness forever? Rating may change.
1. Chapter 1

Well, this is the first thing i posted up here in a long time... I felt the urge to write some American McGee's Alice, and i figured, why not make my favorite villain the main character? I might change the rating for this story later on, depending whether or not anyone thinks i should. Also, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask, either here or my tumblr account ^^

* * *

Mekt watched as Garth dangled the new rattle in front of the baby as they sat in front of the fireplace. "Come on Ayla, keep your eyes on the rattle…" Despite his brother's pleas, she focused on the carpet beneath her tiny hands, running them over the pattern as she attempted crawling. He sighed and looked at Mekt. "Babies are so boring. I wish Dinah would come out of hiding so I could play with her instead."

"Imagine how me and Nura dealt with you when you were like that," Mekt joked before returning his attention back to his drawing, noticing that part of it didn't look right. "No, not good…" He grabbed the eraser and rubbed if furiously against the paper. He then redrew the part he erased, feeling a bit more satisfied with it.

"Can I see what you're drawing?"

"No, you'd get drool all over it."

"I'll leave Ayla on the floor!"

"I wasn't referring to Ayla when I said drool," Mekt replied while smirking and making Garth glare at him.

"Not funny."

"It's pretty funny actually." Garth grabbed one of Ayla's stuffed animals – a teddy bear – and hurled it at Mekt, who shielded himself from the soft projectile.

Mekt continued drawing some more before he heard footsteps enter the parlor. He looked at the doorway and saw his father entering the room.

"Dad!" Garth got up and hugged their father's legs. "You're back!"

"Yeah, sorry I'm home so late, I had to help some of my undergraduates with preparing for finals," Dad apologized before Garth released him. He then came over to Mekt to see what he was doing. Mekt rushed to cover the picture up, but instead it fell to the floor, the picture facing up.

Staring back at him was the Cheshire Cat, both as a cat and a boy, with his wide grin and funny circles on his forehead. His father bent down to pick up the drawing. "… These kinds of things again, from your dreams?" He faced Mekt disapprovingly. Most of his drawing related to the subject his father was referring to were… usually odd, and according to father, disturbing.

"… Sorry," Mekt apologized quietly, fidgeting with his hands.

There was an audible sigh from his father before he went to put the paper in the trash. "Please don't draw this stuff Mekt. Especially around your siblings."

"Whatever it is he's drawing, I doubt it will affect Ayla," Garth said as he shook the rattle again as he returned to Ayla. "And she's already named after my dead twin, so I doubt that a drawing can do much."

"GARTH!" Everyone, with the exception of Ayla, turned to see Mom there, staring disapprovingly at the youngest son at the mentioning of naming the new daughter after Garth's twin sister who died when they were both only a few months old. "Don't say that!"

"She is though!"

"She's still your sister though!"

"She doesn't care!" He gestured back to Ayla, who smiled as she was unaware of the current debate and tried to clap. "See?"

"Well your mother does," Dad stated firmly.

Garth sighed. "Sorry." He then began leaving the room. "I'm heading to bed."

Mekt looked at where Garth went, not sure if he should try talking to him about what he just said. Just because Ayla was named after Garth's late twin doesn't mean that he needed to bring it up as much as possible. "Mekt, you better head to bed too. It's getting late." His father nudged him as he said that while Mom picked Ayla up and began taking her upstairs to the nursery.

"… Alright."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

As soon as he changed into his pajama, he saw his older sister's room's light was on and peaked in, hoping she was awake. "Nura?"

She looked up from the book she was reading and saw him. "Hey Mekt. Heading to bed?"

"Yeah, Garth's already in bed, and so is Ayla… unless she wakes us up with her crying again."

"I'm sure she won't." She then frowned. "What's wrong? You look upset about something."

"… Dad caught me drawing someone from Wonderland again."

"Ah, I see…" She got up and went over to him, carefully moving some of his dark hair away from his eyes. "Don't worry, I'm sure he's just adjusting to it. I'm personally really glad to see you being an imaginative artist. It's hard to find kids with an amazing imagination."

Mekt shrugged, not sure if she was right about Dad…

And he wanted to say that the things he drew weren't imaginary… They were real. Maybe they were in his dreams, but they were real!

He decided against correcting her though. "Are you going with him tomorrow to the college?"

"Yeah, but I promise I'll bring you some cookies afterwards, okay?"

"Alright." He then hugged her. "Is Mom going to let you keep your hair dyed by the way?" He indicated her white hair, which she had dyed again a few days ago, and when their mom found out, she was really mad.

"Mmm, yeah, we came to a truce about it."

"What kind of truce?"

"I get to keep my hair this color if I go to that party at the college during the winter." She made a small shudder. "And spend all that time with the toadies. Wonderful."

"Ouch." Mekt grimaced when he heard that. He has heard horror stories of the boys that work with their father at the college from her, and felt a huge amount of sympathy towards her on the matter.

Nura patted his shoulder as she pulled away from the hug. "Welp, it could be worse I guess… By the way," She suddenly went over to her desk and pulled something out of the drawer. "Look at what I found when I was scavenging the attic!" She brought it over to him. "It's the rabbit I got you when you were born!"

Mekt blinked with surprise. "… Really? I thought all of my baby toys were lost when we moved."

"Apparently one managed to survive." She held up the stuffed toy to him so he could see it. "And it's in surprisingly good condition."

Mekt took a look at it, seeing that it's fur was still as white as it could be, and there were no signs of wear, which surprised him. "Huh… yeah, it is."

"… Well, go one, take it." She held the rabbit out for him.

Mekt stuttered, "N-no! If Garth see's me with that, I'll never hear the end of it!" His younger brother made fun of him for getting pink paint dumped on him at school, so there was no doubt in Mekt's mind that he would make fun of him if he saw the rabbit.

She shrugged. "Fine. Guess I'll keep it."

Nura was about to take it away when Mekt felt himself immediately regret what he said and grabbed the ribbon for her nightgown. "Uh… actually… can I have it?" He felt himself blush while asking. Nura was so nice to him… he didn't want to seem ungrateful to her kind acts towards him.

Nura faced him again and smiled. "Of course."

Mekt held the rabbit in his hands, feeling the softness of it. "… If Garth teases me about this, you are going to back me up that you dared me to hold this until we gave it to Ayla."

Nura laughed. "Alright." She patted his head before kissing him on the forehead. "Now, you better go to bed, before mom sees you're still up."

"Alright. Goodnight." He then went to his room, which was right across from hers and got into bed, holding his rabbit close.

… Little did he know that would be the last conversation he would have with his older sister.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Garth stirred in his bed, starting to smell something odd. Then he heard Ayla beginning to cry, officially waking him up. When he opened his eyes, he felt something sting them. "Ow!" He blinked several times until he saw light coming outside the door. Curious, he got out of his bed and opened the door.

He soon wished he hadn't.

Garth saw flames beginning to crawl up the walls, and smoke had begun filling up the hallway. He saw Mekt come out of his room and ran to the nursery, and Garth quickly followed. When he got inside the room, he saw Mekt get Ayla out of the crib before he turned to face Garth. "Garth!" He ran over to him and gave him the crying baby. "Climb out the window and get help! I'm going to get Nura, Mom and Dad!"

"No, I want to help!"

Ayla's shrieking got louder, making both brothers look at her. "Garth! Please! For Ayla!"

Hearing the desperate sound of Mekt's voice, Garth made his way to the window, and while holding Ayla carefully, reached over to the branch of the tree that had a half-built tree house in it. Somehow, he managed to make it without dropping her. As he made his way down the tree, he looked back at the window he just got out of. The fire's light was getting brighter.

In an attempt to soothe his crying sister, he tried to shush her and began running away from the house, going to get help like Mekt told him to. "Don't cry sis… Mekt's going to get out with everyone else, I promise…"

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Mekt shielded his face as the heat began to increase as he made his way to his parents' bedroom. The fire was spreading faster than he thought it would. "Mom! Da – " He started coughing as some of the smoke went down his throat. He continued stumbling towards his parents' door while trying to breathe, and he saw that there was a orange light that had begun glowing under it, and it was not the lamp his parents kept in there. He finally reached it and began banging his fists against the door. " _Cough –_ Mom – _cough –_ Dad, can you hea –" Another coughing fit cut him off from finishing his sentence.

"Mekt?!" His father's voice rang out from the other side of the door, and Mekt felt his eyes water up.

"Dad, hurry! Get out!" Mekt grabbed the door handle and tried to open the door, feeling the hot knob burn his pals. "Dumb door!" As he said that, he heard the ceiling creak and looked up, seeing a chunk of burning wood fall from it. He barely managed to move away from the fallen debris… but when he looked back at the door, he saw that now it was blocked by the burning part of the ceiling. Mekt froze there for a moment. "No… NO NO NO!" He tried slamming himself against the fallen part of the ceiling in an attempt to move it from the door, but he didn't have enough strength to do anything, and began coughing again.

"FOR GOD'S SAKE MEKT! GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!"

"BUT WHAT ABOUT YOU GUYS AND NURA?!" He then froze. "Nura." He then looked back at his older sister's room, the door closed. "NURA, HELP ME!" He went over to he door and seized the doorknob, once again burning his hands against the hot metal. However, it refused to budge. It was locked. "NURA?! NURA WAKE UP!" He banged his fist against the door, yet there was no answer. "NURA!"

He then heard something above him again. Looking up, he saw that more of the ceiling had begun caving in. As it fell, he felt some of the flames land on him, making him yell out from the pain as he was burned and stumbled away from Nura's door just as another part fell in front of it, blocking Mekt. He looked back at his parents' door and saw more of the ceiling falling there. "MOM! DAD!"

"GO SAVE YOURSELF! NOW!"

Mekt shook his head. He told Garth that he would get them out, he told him! "No, no!" Some more burning debris fell on him. "AH!" He retreated into his room, and watched as the doorway became blocked as the ceiling collapsed in the hallway. He then heard a familiar meow and looked at the window, and saw Dinah on the windowsill before she jumped out. Knowing that there was no other way for him to get out, he grabbed the toy rabbit Nura gave him earlier, and went to the window. Then, to his horror, he heard his parents cry out in pain. He looked back into the room to see the fire… and slipped off the edge of the window, plummeting to the ground.

He didn't realize he fell to the ground until he felt his whole body ache. Not that he could care.

He failed. He couldn't save them. It was his fault.

All his fault.

He felt his head fall to the side, catching sight of something running in the forest nearby just before blacking out…

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Garth stood in silence as he watched three black bags with something inside each one being wheeled away from what he used to call home. He was… just gone for five minutes… and he managed to bring someone back and there was the fire department on the way as well. But when he got back, the house was fully enveloped in flames. Now… it was all ashes and charred remains, people shifting through it to see if there was anything that could be salvaged. Garth felt something rub against his leg, and looked down to see Dinah at his feet before one of his neighbors came over and grabbed her. "Wait, no!" His words went unnoticed by them though.

Holding Ayla close, he then saw something being wheeled over to the ambulance… something alive. "Mekt?!" He ran over to the people carrying the stretcher and looked at what was on it. Indeed, it was his brother… but then he realized something was wrong. He was burned all over, and staring blankly upwards, and didn't even seem to have noticed Garth had ran up to him. "Mekt? Mekt, can you hear me?!" Despite Garth had raised his voice, Mekt made no response. The medics then hurried carrying Mekt to the ambulance, passing by without offering an explanation to what happened to him.

Unable to help it, Garth began crying right there, with Ayla joining in with him as one of his mom's friends removed her from his hold while he collapsed.

After a few hours, Garth's aunt came and he and Ayla stayed with her the night, after retrieving Dinah from the neighbor that took her to make sure she was unharmed by the fire. Then, as soon as it was light out the next morning, they all headed to the hospital to see Mekt.

The doctor was an old man with a beard, wearing wide glasses, and he was standing outside of the room Mekt was suppose to be in. "Doctor Magnus?" Auntie asked while adjusting Ayla in her arms.

"Yes, are you all here for Mekt?"

Auntie was about to say something else when Garth started asking question. "Is he okay? What about the burns? How did he get out?"

Dr. Magnus rubbed his forehead. "… I will be answering the questions backward. He managed to escape by jumping out of his bedroom window… or falling rather. He had several broken bones, and he was rather close to the house when he was found. As for the burns… I personally think it's a miracle he survived them by the time he got here. We gave him some treatment in an effort to prevent the burns from scarring him too much. I believe will take up to a year for him to fully recover… physically."

Garth blinked in confusion before looking at Auntie. "Auntie, what does 'physically' mean?"

"… It means his body's condition."

"Well, so that's about it then, right? We just need to wait till then and then he's okay and out of the hospital!" Neither the doctor nor Auntie responded, worrying Garth. "… Right?"

"… No." Dr. Magnus took off his glasses. "It's his mind that took most of the damage."

"… What does that mean?"

The doctor sighed. "I believe the experience has left him rather traumatized, being nearly burned alive and witnessing the death of your parents. He's… he appears to be in a catatonic state right now."

Garth swallowed. "What… does that mean?"

"… He doesn't respond to anything. Sounds, visual things, any kind of simulations seem to go unnoticed, and he's completely immobile and mute… as of what we've seen so far."

"… So it's kind of like being asleep?"

"No, he's awake. If he was asleep, it would have made things much easier…" The doctor sighed before putting his glasses back on. "We'll probably have to move him to a mental asylum when he's healed enough."

Garth fidgeted in place before asking another question. "Can we still see him?"

Dr. Magnus gave a small nod. "For a few minutes. Just don't expect much out of him." He opened the door to Mekt's room up and stepped aside so Garth and Auntie could go in before him.

As he entered, he saw Mekt lying in bed, bandages covering most of his skin that wasn't beneath the clothes he was wearing. "Hey Mekt, it's Garth." He came closer to the bed and looked at his older brother's face. Mekt still had the blank stare from last night, looking into space, scaring Garth. He's never seen anyone remotely like this. Not even their parents when they were tired from work. "Me and Ayla are going to be with Auntie… She's also here." He looked over at his Aunt, hoping that maybe she could get a response. She slowly came over, but that didn't get anything from Mekt.

"… Dinah's okay too. One of our neighbors kind of kidnapped her for a while to make sure she was okay. She scratched his face when he tried to check her belly."

After a few minutes of Garth talking to a silent Mekt, he looked to the chair and saw something that he had only seen in pictures when Mekt was much younger. It was his white rabbit toy that Nura said she gave him. "Hey, haven't seen this in a while," He commented as he reached for it and then held it for Mekt. "Thought it was lost…" Still no response from him. After a few more minutes of talking, there was a silent cough from Auntie, and he saw her tilt her head to he door, indicating they had to leave now. Garth then tried to tuck the rabbit into Mekt's arms. "Well, I don't think I can stay, so I'll leave this with you."

Then, he watched as Mekt held the rabbit a little closer, slowly. Garth sighed in relief, glad to see his brother doing something, even though it was just a slight movement... He was then dragged out of the room, and watched as a nurse went inside after he left with Aunty.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The rest of the visits over the next year were much more depressing. Mekt usually remained in his unresponsive state while Garth tried to get him to say something by having one-sided conversations. And yet the worse visits were when Mekt actually did something besides staring off into space. He would start screaming and thrashing about, and would have to be restraint out of fear that he would hurt himself as he was still recovering from the fire. Aunty began limiting how often and how long Garth could visit him when she witnessed one of these fits herself. In response, Garth tried sneaking out several times to see his brother, and was caught several times.

The new behavior wasn't the only thing that changed over the course of one year. Mekt's hair, which was originally a dark color, like Nura's was before she dyed it, gradually turned pure white. The doctors said it was most likely a result of the mental trauma he experienced in that one night.

Several kids at school asked why Mekt wasn't back for classes yet, and Garth kept telling them because he wasn't fully recovered. Mekt never really had many friends at school, so aside from Garth, there were no visitors.

Eventually, the hospital deemed Mekt healed enough to be transferred to an asylum. Garth somehow had convinced his Aunt to let him accompany Mekt during the move. As he rode in the ambulance with Mekt, it was simply silence between the two of them as the white-haired boy continued holding the toy Nura gave him, while Aunty sat with the driver.

When they actually arrived at the asylum, Garth instantly understood one of the reasons why Aunty was so hesitant to let him come in the first place. The building seemed old and was surrounded by a huge iron fence and brick walls that seemed like it would be painful to fall off from.

He felt the vehicle stop and watched as several people dressed in white opened up the back of the ambulance and started taking Mekt out. However, as they were, a black cat appeared out of nowhere and jumped on top of the boy. There were surprised gasps from the people carrying the stretcher and they accidentally dropped Mekt to the ground. The cat continued sitting on Mekt, and Garth climbed out and went over to his brother. "Shoo, shoo!"

The cat in response hissed and swiped its claws at Garth until someone took a long stick and brandished at the cat, making it get off. It went under one of the bushes, eyes still fixed on Mekt. The stretcher was picked up again and was carried inside the building. Garth tried to follow, but one of the staff members blocked him. "I'm sorry, we can't let you go in."

"But Mekt-"

"No exceptions. But maybe next time." With that, the person went in and closed the door, Mekt now inside. By himself.

"Garth." He looked back at his Aunt. "We need to go."

Hesitantly, Garth got in the front, sitting on Aunty's lap, watching the building as they left, wondering what it would take to get inside just to visit Mekt.


	2. Chapter 2

Second chapter! warning - this chapter contains force-feeding and mentions of suicide attempt. If either one triggers u, please proceed with caution.

Also, a quick note on the setting - this fic is a neo-victorian setting - i wanted to combine the game's setting with some ostuff that i know wouldn't exist in the real victorian era. So, enjoy!

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"This is fantastic," Kell muttered to himself as he sorted through the spilled chemical bottles, hoping none of the chemicals that were on the floor would have a reaction. This was his third week of community service at the asylum, and he was already wishing he took the five-year in jail option for punishment for robbery and attempted murder instead.

Half of the orderlies who worked at the damn place hardly did their job, and half of that half intentionally keeps messing with the stuff that was important – that included the way the chemicals were stored so that they wouldn't fall out of the cabinet.

Hissing as he felt one of the chemicals burn his exposed skin of his arm when he accidentally splattered some of the liquid, Kell put the bottles away before cleaning the mess. When he was done, he threw out the chemical soiled rags into the trash and stormed out. "I swear, if I find out who was in charge of that mess, I'll put them in the funeral parlor myself."

As he made his way down the hall, he heard one of the nurses call him. He sighed and went towards her. "What is it?"

"I need your help with feeding one of the patients. Someone needs to hold his mouth open so I can take care of the rest."

Kell groaned, having past experiences where patients would flail about during their feeding sessions. "Fine," He grumbled before following her to the stairs and followed her to the top floor, which he heard the more problematic patients were. Oh goody, as if this wasn't going to be difficult enough.

Listening to the various sounds some of the patients made in their rooms, Kell was led to a room at the end of the hallway, watching as the nurse unlocked the door and opened it. "Hello Mekt," she said, making her voice sound sweet as possible, "Good to see you."

Kell scanned the room, expecting to see this 'Mekt' moving about. Instead, it was absolute quiet, and he saw someone lying on the bed, covered by the blankets. Curiosity took over and Kell approached the figure in bed and reached to take the blankets down from his head. His eyes fell on a man, who seemed much sleeker than Kell was himself, facing away from the door. However, what caught Kell's attention was the fact that his hair was silvery white.

"Kell, can you get him to sit up?" The nurse was bringing over some kind of soup, dropping several round pills into it.

He nodded and reached for Mekt, pulling him up from the bed so that he was upright. Kell was now looking at the patient's face, and it was probably one of the more miserable ones he had seen so far. He couldn't have been any older than 19 years old, his blue eyes having dark circles beneath them while staring blankly ahead, as if dead. Propping the guy against the wall, he then began prying his mouth apart… that turned out to be a task easier said than done. Mekt's mouth was clammed shut, as if wired… Kell wasn't sure if this was intentional of the patient or not.

"Come on," Kell growled as he gripped the white-haired man's chin in an effort to pull it town, which slowly did work. He watched as the nurse stuck the funnel's tube down Mekt's throat as soon as his mouth was open enough for her to fit it in. Kell expected a reaction, but there were none. Not even a gag reflex as the tube went in further. When she finished giving him food, the nurse pulled the tube out and signaled Kell to let Mekt close his mouth. He released his hold, watching as Mekt's mouth instantly closed shut.

"Well, that's all we can do for him right now, so we can leave," the nurse said as she gathered the things she had brought in as well as several things that seemed to be sitting on the table next to the bed.

"Good." Kell began turning away when he saw Mekt's eyes shift, as if looking for something, spooking him a little. "… Uh… do corpses move their eyes?"

The nurse responded by grabbing his ear and dragging him out. "Don't say that in front of patients."

"He was acting pretty corpse-like until we began leaving."

She sighed. "He can move occasionally, but most of the time, it's minor things. Like you said, his eyes."

"… And what about the other times?"

She looked uncomfortable. "I can't say anything." She began leaving, and Kell began his way back downstairs.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Kell had just finished dinner when he heard Dr. Wilson call for him. Groaning, he got up from the table and went over to the doctor. "Yes?"

"I need you to assist me moving a few things to the top floor."

Top floor, again. Great. Fighting the urge to roll his eyes, Kell grabbed the heavier things the doctor himself could not carry and followed him on his second trip up. As they were walking down the hallway, Kell found himself passing the room he was in earlier. Curious, he peaked into the door's window and saw Mekt still on the bed, almost the same position he was when Kell left.

"Mr. El!" Kell looked at Dr. Wilson and walked back over. "Please don't go poking your nose into random rooms."

"That wasn't random. I had to assist a nurse feeding the patient in the room. Mekt, I think?"

Dr. Wilson looked at him. "You went in there?"

"Yeah?"

"… How was he behaving?"

"… Well, he seemed pretty dead, at least until I saw him actually move his eye…"

Dr. Wilson nodded. "I see…"

"… Why'd you ask?"

"… I'm the doctor who is directly in charge of overseeing Mekt Ranzz's condition. We began giving him a new drug over the last ten days to see if there would be a change in the usual behavior, but so far there hasn't been much, if any at all."

"Hm." Kell didn't see that one coming. As he was setting down the things he had carried into the office that was on the top floor, Kell heard what he was pretty sure was a banshee. He watched as Dr. Wilson rushed out, and figured he better follow, or the police would try to use this as an excuse to actually put him in jail. Going out into the hall, he saw Dr. Wilson along with another nurse go into Mekt's room, where the screaming was from. Running, Kell entered and saw Mekt screaming as the nurse was attempting to restrain him, but she wasn't having much luck.

Kell instantly came over and helped her push him down on the bed and pinned his hands down. "Come on, stop scream-"

"IT'S MY FAULT! MY FAULT!" Mekt continued thrashing as he screamed those words. "I COULDN'T SAVE THEM!"

As Kell continued holding the flailing male down, the nurse injected something into Mekt, and it was merely seconds until Mekt was out, no longer thrashing or screaming. Silence returned before Dr. Wilson broke it. "First fit in three weeks. I suppose we'll have to adjust his pill's again." The two medics began leaving.

Kell noticed that he was still pinning down one of Mekt's hands by the wrist. He removed his hand, and was about to leave when he saw what was hidden beneath his hand. White bandages were wrapped around his wrist, and Kell then saw it was the same with his other wrist, immediately indicating that he was a cutter.

He slowly walked out of the room, still surprised by the outburst from the now sleeping patient. Guess this is what the first nurse from earlier wasn't able to talk about.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It had been several days since Kell's trip to the top floor. He was finished assisting some of the patients, the ones who were low risk or had short stays at the asylum, into the garden that was outside the hospital. If he had to be honest, this was one of the few parts of the hospital he didn't hate. Not that he particularly cared for it though. He just wanted to get his damn community service over.

As he coming back inside the building, several cats made a mad dash past him, barely missing him. God, how many cats were there at this place? They all probably were feral, but some of them acted like pets towards a few people… and he was not one of those people. Maybe they saw him as a scratching post, but that was about it. At least there were hardly any mice thanks to them…

He was planning on heading to the library when a doctor called for him. "Can you go fetch my notes Kell? I accidentally left them in Dr. Wilson's top floor office." Just when he was beginning to think he would never have to see the damn floor ever again.

Still, he made his way up to the office and found the notes the doctor asked for. As he was leaving, he stopped in front of Mekt's room again. It was quiet… Against Kell's better judgment, he looked into the door's window to see if Mekt was even in there. Indeed, he was… and so was a black cat that was sitting next to him. Animals weren't supposed to be in the rooms.

Kell opened the door and slipped in as quickly as possible before going over to the bed. "Get out of here," He told the cat as he came closer. However, the cat protested the order by hissing and suddenly jumping out at him, landing on his face and sinking its claws into his skin. "OW!" Kell began struggling to get the damn thing off him. "Stupid cat!" Finally, he got it off and watched as it scampered off to the window, sliding fluidly through the bars. "Good riddance," Kell growled as he rubbed where the cat had scratched him.

As he was picking up the stuff that he had dropped when the cat attacked him, he looked at Mekt and froze. Mekt was watching him. He wasn't just blankly looking at the direction Kell happen to be in – his eyes were fixed on him, following him as he stood back up.

"… Okay." Kell walked out, not wanting to stick around if Mekt started screaming like he did before.

After he gave the doctor who had sent him to get his notes what he wanted, Kell was cleaning the hallway floors when Dr. Wilson approached him. "Good evening Mr. El."

"Er… can I help you with anything sir?"

"Well… one of the nurses saw you leaving Mekt's room earlier." Hearing that made him bury his face in his palm, wondering how the hell someone saw him. "What exactly were you doing in there?"

"… I saw a cat had managed to enter his room, I was getting it out."

"That's all?"

"Yeah, why?"

Dr. Wilson rubbed his forehead. "I caught several orderlies at different times giving some… unauthorized treatment. I would hate to add you to the list."

"I didn't do anything to him. I just was getting the cat out."

"Hmmm… what about the patient's behavior while you were in there?"

Kell rubbed his neck before answering. "Uh… at first he acted the same way when I saw him before… but when I was going to leave, he was watching me?"

Dr. Wilson blinked in curiosity. "Watching you?" He held his chin as he thought. "Hm. He never had paid attention to anyone ever before. Not in the eight years he has been here."

Kell looked away before his brain registered the eight years part. "EIGHT?!"

"Roughly, it will be nine in November… perhaps the new formula I gave him is having an effect… or I'll have to see if one of the orderlies gave him something I didn't authorize." Kell didn't say anything, instead resuming his cleaning. But he was still disturbed by that 8-year thing. "… Kell, at 6 tonight, I would like you to assist me and the nurse with feeding him."

"… What?"

"If you were right about him watching you, I would like to determine whether or not it's a single event, or if he's actually being aware of his surroundings."

Not having any room to argue – god knows what would happen if he refused – Kell nodded.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Kell watched as Dr. Wilson and Nurse… what was her last name? Mallor, that's right, went into Mekt's room before he did. As he stepped in, he saw Mekt on the bed again, looking away.

"Good evening Mekt," Dr. Wilson greeted. There was no response, and the doctor looked at Kell before tilting his head.

Knowing what to do, Kell walked over and moved Mekt upright and adjusted his head so that he was facing him. When Kell's saw Mekt's eyes fall on him, he moved to the side like the doctor told him to do earlier, to see if he would keep his eyes on him like he did earlier. And much to his surprised, he actually did. He looked back at Dr. Wilson, who jotted something down on his notepad before nodding for Kell to continue. Kell opened Mekt's mouth again, finding the same resistance from before. However, Mekt kept his eyes on him, even as the nurse inserted the funnel down his throat and removed it.

"Kell, see if he will turn his head if you move out of his field of vision."

Kell hesitated before following the doctor's orders. Moving to the far corner of the room so that Mekt was facing away from him again, Kell looked back at the bed. Apparently, Mekt's head was still in the same position, no longer looking at him.

"Now, reenter his field of vision." Kell did as he was told again, and watched Mekt carefully. His blue eyes began following him again. "Hmm. So he only seems to move his eyes intentionally, but keeps his head still" Dr. Wilson commented before leaning over to the nurse and whispered something to her, which made her nod and walk out of the room. "Thank you, that would be all for now."

"Great." Kell began leaving the room, leaving the doctor with the patient. He followed Mallor as she went to the office and shuffled through a few things. "So, what now? Can I go?"

"We need to find out why Mekt seems to be aware of your presence. Now I have a theory, so do me a favor and hold the files I look through so I don't get them mixed up with the ones I haven't." She then set a huge stack of files on top of the desk and began looking through them.

After half an hour, Kell had a third of the original stack in his arms, seriously wishing he could just bail. Why him of all people?

"YES!"

He raised an eyebrow as Mallor raised one of the files in her hand above her head. "What?"

"I was right!" She opened the file up, which had several photos clipped to papers inside, and she then held out one of the papers that had what looked like a family photo. The photo consisted of two boys, one of them bearing a resemblance to Mekt – minus the hair, which was black, a baby, a girl who seemed to be in her late teens that also had black hair, and two adults, possibly the parents. "You look similar to the dad!" She pointed to the man in the photo, who also had dark hair, as well as a more muscular build, making the appearances seem a little similar…

"Not by much though," Kell said dubiously.

Mallor frowned just as Dr. Wilson came back in. "Oh, Doctor, I think I have a good theory why Mekt seems to be paying attention to Mr. El here." She then showed him the photo. "See a resemblance? I think seeing someone who resembled a family member might have triggered something."

Dr. Wilson adjusted his glasses a bit and looked back and forth between Kell and the picture. "Hmmm, I can see your point… but why hasn't this happened whenever his younger brother comes to visit then? If you ask me, the theory would have to work in that case too."

Kell blinked in surprise to hear that the brother actually visited

"… Maybe because the younger brother is actually alive while the father is deceased."

"Then what about the Aunt? If I understand, she's a twin of the mother."

Mallor made a small hum as she pondered. "Well, she doesn't come by very often… perhaps it's due to the medication we have given him that he's able to see similarities?"

"Mmm, the only way we can confirm that for certain would be if we were to take him off the medication and have Kell present… and right now, the only reason why he has been getting enough sleep is because of the medicine itself, and it takes a while for the effects to both work and wear off…" He rubbed his forehead. "I think it would be too risky…"

"What if we had him on his medicine when his brother comes by to visit? I know it's been a while because broke his leg at the factory he worked at, but we might get something out of it!"

"I'll try to call him up, but I think he needs some more time recovering. In the meantime, we better go check on some of the other patients" Dr. Wilson started walking out.

"Can I go now?"

"Yes Mr. El. But I would like you to assist us in the morning again."

Kell's only response was a growl as the doctor and nurse soon left the room. He placed the files he was holding on the desk and was about to leave. However, the files had a different plan in mind, as he heard them slide off the desk and onto the floor. He groaned as he turned back around and began stacking them back up, carefully placing the papers that came out of them back in the right ones.

He was almost done when he found another file that was labeled "Personal Items" that was wide open with several photo's next to it. He sorted through the photos, stopping for a moment when he saw a white toy rabbit, attached to a paper that had a picture of Mekt. Huh. Didn't see that while he was in the room… Putting it back in the file, Kell continued sorting through everything before finally finishing and left the office.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Kell followed the doctor up the stairs the next morning, Mallor following close behind. However, as they approached the room, there was the sound of two people talking.

"Shall we test the leeches first, or the electrotherapy?"

"Electrotherapy would be faster to do."

Dr. Wilson frowned and went into the room. "What are you two doing here? I explicitly told you two to stay out!"

"Oh, us? We figured Mr. Ranzz here needed some more help with getting himself cleaned."

Kell entered the room and saw Dr. Wilson glaring at two orderlies, one of them holding a jar that contained what he assumed was leeches. Mekt was on the bed, his shirt removed and lying on the floor, slumped over while there was a red mark on his face, as if he was slapped. "Leave," Dr. Wilson ordered firmly. The orderlies shrugged and did as they were told, passing by Kell and the nurse on their way out. "Nurse Mallor, please quickly examine him before we give him his medicine."

"Yes sir." She came over and looked at Mekt's red cheek before looking at the rest of his exposed skin. "Well, I'm not sure at this point whether or not it will leave a bruise, but we better leave it be. Other than that, that seems to be all they did to him."

"Alright." Dr. Wilson motioned Kell to go over to Mekt to open his mouth up again. Kell complied, not paying attention as Mekt's blue eyes watched him approach. However, as Kell came closer, he saw faint burn scars on his shoulders. He assumed they were from a possible suicide attempt, like the bandages on his wrists.

After the feeding ritual was finished, Dr. Wilson looked at Kell. "You stay here."

"What – NO!"

"Mr. El, whenever I catch those two orderlies from earlier hanging about, there are good chances either them or friends of theirs will come later. I would prefer not to deal with that today. I have to talk to a few other doctors about other patients. When I return, you will be free to go." Before Kell could argue, Dr. Wilson disappeared out the door, along with the nurse, leaving him alone with Mekt.

After a while, there was the sound of someone approaching the door. As much as Kell was hoping it was the doctor to tell him he was free, it was actually the orderlies from before. "Oh, I see the lunatic still has some company," one of them said playfully. "If you want, we can take your place."

"Sorry, Dr. Wilson told me to stay here," Kell growled in response. "And honestly, I'm not in the mood for getting myself yelled at."

The orderlies shrugged. "Well, fine. What about doing an activity together then?"

"No. Now get the hell out." He crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes as he said that.

As they closed the door, they began talking to each other. "Guess we're not going to any fun stuff today with Mekt."

"Ah, he's boring anyway. Personally, I'm surprised Nurse Kathy hasn't tried to euthanize him just to make room."

Kell remained quiet at their comments, listening as their footsteps walked away from the room. He then looked back at the shirt that was still on the floor, and figured he better pick it up. As he bent down, he heard a familiar meow. He looked at the window and saw the same cat from before, who took one look at Kell and hissed before creeping it's way over to Mekt. It began rubbing itself against the white-haired male, nudging its head against his hand before licking it.

Kell quickly removed the cat, and was rewarded with a scratch to the face as it squirmed to escape him while yowling. He dropped the damn cat and watched as it fled to the window again. This time, Kell looked out to see how it even got up here, seeing it walk carefully along a brick ledge that was just barely wide enough for the cat to walk away on.

He rubbed the scratch that was left on his face and looked back at Mekt, who was still looking at him. "Glad to see what your friend did?" There was no reply.

After several more minutes, Kell heard voices at the door. "That mother fucker is still here?!" Great, the orderlies decided to return.

"Great, guess he meant it when the doc told him to stay. Let's just go drag him out."

"Forget it! You know what that guy did before he got here?"

There were several other words exchanged in mumbles before the voices eventually went away. Good.

When what felt like an hour passed, Kell's legs began getting tired of standing, and there were no chairs for him to sit down in, and he really wasn't interested in a hard floor… but it was that or sitting on the edge of the bed… next to the patient. After a moment of debate, he chose the floor, pressing his back against the wall. He traced some of the tiles on the floor with his fingers, finding a surprising amount of dust.

It was probably half an hour after sitting down he heard a scream from one of the other rooms. Wondering if it was due to the orderlies messing with another patient, Kell forced himself up and listened to the outside by leaning his ear against the door, since the window was unable to look into the hall.

"Miss Poppy, I think we should give it back to her."

"She doesn't need this damn toy." However, the wailing got louder, clearly disagreeing with whoever just spoke. Within minutes, the wailing was almost at the point where Kell couldn't bear it – Mekt on the other hand didn't seem to notice the noise.

Thankfully, the first – and younger - voice spoke up again. "MISS POPPY!"

"… You can take it back yourself then."

After a few seconds, the wailing finally stopped. Which was good news for Kell's eardrums – even though they were still ringing.

Kell wasn't sure how long he stayed in the room after that. The two orderlies from before kept coming by – each time disgruntled by the fact Kell was still there. Guess the doctor was right with his hunch about them returning repeatedly.

Eventually, he saw Mekt curl up on his bed. Kell looked at him, curious whether or not if he was going to sleep if he was just tired of sitting up. When he finally became bored enough, he came closer to look at Mekt. He saw that his face seemed… contorted, as if he was having a nightmare. Unsure what to do, he just left Mekt alone. He was never good at comforting sane people, so how would he be better with the not-sane ones?

He heard the door open, and, finally, Dr. Wilson walked inside the room. "How were things?"

"Well, the two knuckle-heads did come back, but they didn't come in."

"Good. And Mekt?"

"Uh, I think he's asleep…" Kell looked back at the figure on the bed. Mekt was still curled up, although his expression seemed to have relaxed.

"I see… you can go now."

Kell nodded in thanks and finally got out.

Later that evening, Kell was eating his dinner indoors – it had began thundering outside, and he was not an idiot to stand out there to get zapped by lightning - when he felt someone tap his shoulder. "Excuse me, Mr. El?" He blinked when he recognized the voice – it was the young voice he heard when the patient on the top floor. He looked up and saw a blond girl standing. "Um, can you please move over?" She pointed at a spot of the table that was close to the edge, next to him.

"Oh, yeah." He scooted over as she sat down next to him. "… You were upstairs earlier, right? Sometime in the middle of the day?"

She looked at him and nodded. "Oh, yes, I was."

"Uh… so who were you assisting today?"

"… Nurse Poppy. Not my favorite person in the whole area to be honest…"

"Yeah, I heard you two arguing."

"Mmm. She believes that taking away patient's belongings benefits them. Or gets them to behave. I personally don't." She then blinked. "Wait, were you on the top floor as well?"

"… I was… with Mekt Ranzz."

"Oh, that fellow. I remember assisting Dr. Wilson with him once. I think that Nurse Poppy took his rabbit though."

Kell blanked for a moment before recalling the picture that he saw yesterday. "Wait, do you mean a white toy rabbit?"

"Yes! Have you seen it?"

"… I saw a picture of it."

"Hm…" She remained quiet before speaking up again. "Uh… can I… ask you to do something?"

Kell felt a bad feeling welling up. "What's this something?"

"… I… know where Nurse Poppy keeps the stuff she takes… a-and I feel so bad for Mr. Ranzz – his brother hasn't been around to help, his sister is too young to come to his ward – I-I think it would be a little comfort to him if he had his rabbit back."

"… He's like 19 years old. I think he's a little old."

Her soft look then hardened with a glare. "I'm 25, and I still have all my toys. And so does my older brother."

"… So?"

She groaned. "Please, just go in and get his rabbit for him… I'll take your shift for bathroom duty if you do."

Kell thought over it for a moment. "… Where does she keep the stuff exactly?"

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Mekt was staring up at the ceiling while lying in bed, listening to both the thunder outside the window and the other sounds that would usually occur during the night. There was screaming tonight though. It… it sounded too much like the screams he heard in the fire… the horrible fire… the one he should have died in. He couldn't save Dad. He couldn't save Mom. He couldn't save Nura. He failed Garth and Ayla. They must hate him, and he wouldn't blame them for it.

He heard the sound of the door opening, but paid it no mind. It was probably just the doctor again…However, Mekt saw them standing over him again. The green irises among the pools of black. The rest of the face seemed… to be without any other features … the only way for him to discern people was by their shape they appeared or their eyes. However, this figure's appearance reminded him of how his father looked… and he found its interaction with the cat that occasionally came by interesting.

The green-eyed figure said something before holding something out. Mekt blinked. It was his rabbit. It-it was back. He remembered one of the feminine figures had taken it from him the other day. He watched as the figure set his rabbit down next to him, and stared at its eyes, which eventually turned away and left the room.

Mekt stayed still on his bed, then moved his fingers. He gently traced them over the rabbit's fur – it was actually there. Slowly, Mekt took hold of it and started pulling it closer. The screaming began getting louder, and he gritted his teeth as he prayed for it to be miraculously blocked out. He curled his wrist as he held the toy closer. "… I'm sorry," He said quietly, apologizing to the screaming. How he wished he could just leave reality and its existence… how he wished he could return to Wonderland.

Mekt held the rabbit close to his chest.

"… _Mekt…"_

He blinked when he heard his name being called.

" _Mekt…"_

He recognized that voice. But where was it coming from? He then heard it again, coming from his rabbit.

" _SAVE US MEKT!"_

That was the last thing he heard before he felt everything beneath him slip away.


	3. Chapter 3

Heyyy! I'm so sorry I took the whole summer to update! I had a job and several other things to work on, so I didn't have as much time as I would have liked, and I was trying not to make this completely identical to the game. There IS violence and death in this chapter and a slight hint to self-harm, so if that bothers you, please don't force yourself to read this!

* * *

Mekt wasn't sure how long he fell. But as he was falling, he saw multi-colored lights flash all around as he plummeted. The natural reaction during the fall of course was screaming, which ended when he hit the bottom. "… Ow." That actually hurt. He closed his eyes at the impact, and after he got some breath back from the screaming, he had slowly opened them, seeing the colored lights fade he had just descended from, and watched as they were replaced with rocks.

Mekt then carefully pushed himself up and looked around. He was sitting on some dirt and moss… Confused by the new surroundings, he stood on his legs and began walking around. He ended up heading over to the wall of the cave, and that's where he saw them. The purple glowing mushrooms. Mekt came closer before kneeling down to inspect.

"… These are… the same ones from Wonderland."

"Glad to see that didn't take long for you to figure out." Mekt blinked and looked behind him. Standing at the exit was a familiar sight – a girl with multi-colored hair that was orange, purple and white.

"… Luorna?" She had grown since the last time he had seen her. She was no longer wearing the sweater with three rabbit on it like she used to when he came to Wonderland when he was younger. She was now wearing a two-piece outfit with long gloves and boots.

"And that the fall didn't do any brain-damage," She replied. "Come on, we gotta hurry!" Before he could ask why, she turned into her rabbit form and ran out of the cave.

"Hey, wait!" He began running after her, going down where there was a huge slope in the ground, and ended up tripping and falling the rest of the way down. At the bottom, he felt his face burn and touched his cheek. He pulled it away and saw a trace amount of blood. Must have scraped himself.

As he stood back up, he watched as another familiar figure materialized before him. The Cheshire cat stood grinning before him, and then gradually shifted into his human form, which Mekt referred to as Querl or Brainy. But everyone liked to call him Brainy most of the time. "Well. Someone had a growth spurt," Mekt commented, looking Brainy up and down. He was certainly older than when Mekt was here last time, and he no longer had the mop-like hair, as it was now cut short. "Still, a comfort to see that smile of yours."

"And someone I see has picked up a new attitude, not that it should surprise me," Brainy said while focusing his odd magenta eyes on him as they suddenly turned green and looked human. "That aside, I hope you still have a knack for learning."

Mekt shrugged. "Well, it's not a matter if I do. It's about if I can learn stuff. People back at the asylum doubt I can. By the way, things look a little different in Wonderland. Any idea where I should go to?"

Brainy smiled at him as his eyes returned to their purple color. "As knowing where you're going is preferable to being lost, ask. Let your need guide your behavior, suppress your instinct to lead, pursue Luorna."

Before Mekt could ask for something less abstract, Brainy turned back into his cat form and then faded. "Thanks," he muttered before finally leaving the cave. As he was walking down the slippery wooden planks that led out, his nose detected an odd smell. Curious, Mekt went down the pathway until he found himself at the edge of a village, still within the cave. He saw someone, a gnome like creature, walking about, carrying a large spherical object on their back. Intrigued, Mekt ran up to them. "Hey! Uh, can you tell me if you saw a rabbit running by?"

"Yes, it went down to the other side." The gnome pointed his hand towards the direction of a plank that crossed over a river of green liquid.

"Thanks… why are you guys down here?"

The creature slumped over sadly, being weighted down by whatever it was they were carrying. "Our land… has been destroyed by the ruler. And our spirits, crushed with it as we are now enslaved to the mines. And slavery and happiness cannot dwell in the same house." With that, the creature walked off.

Mekt, getting a sense that things weren't going to be as nice as the last time he was here, walked to the plank that was overstretched the green river, which Mekt guessed was not water now that he could smell an acid like smell, took a few steps back and made a huge jump across. He stumbled a bit as he landed on the other side, seeing another gnome-creature. "Uh, can I ask you if you saw a rabbit?"

"Yes, it went down to the left. But don't stir up any trouble here, the Red Lord's agents are ruthless. Won't hesitate to kill."

Red Lord. That must be the ruler the first creature mentioned. He recalled him in his previous visits. Horrible, insisted all sentences be decapitation, and kept his rule strong with his council. Mekt couldn't really recall what he looked like though…

"Well, I'm not afraid of them. Never was really." With that, Mekt went off in the direction the gnome directed him in. As he went down another tunnel, he saw something glowing while hidden behind several collapsed poles. Curious, he went around them and saw the light was a glowing heart. "… What the?" He instinctively reached out to touch it, and when he did, it suddenly lit up before it disappeared. The only traces of it were red ribbons of light that floated towards and into him. When they did, the burning sensation from the scrapes on his face ended.

"I figured you would need that." Brainy materialized before Mekt, scaring him a brief moment. "Meta-essence is the life-force in Wonderland. It's good for recoveries, as well as when you may need to use some magic, since you are not native to this place. Collect what you can, and please, use it wisely." With that, he then walked past Mekt and flicked his wrists in a motion to get him to follow. Obliging, Mekt pursued Brainy until he found himself outside the tunnel, and saw Brainy holding something. "Here."

Mekt carefully looked at what the shorter male offered him. It was a silver knife. Carefully grasping the handle, Mekt examined the blade. "What's this for?"

"I'm giving you the Vorpal Blade for necessity. Although, it will not be sufficient for what needs to be done later on."

"… Alright. So, where is Luorna?"

"Up here!" He looked in the direction he heard her voice and saw her in rabbit form. "Come on!" With that, she continued running.

Brainy groaned. "Luorna, wait! You're forgetting something!"

Mekt raised an eyebrow as he went towards where she went. He ended up finding a small corner with moss and mushrooms growing, and against the wall, a mouse-hole. He looked back at Brainy, who was rubbing his forehead. "… Did she go through there?"

"Yes, to the vale, even though I told her that unlike a fair amount of Wonderland residence, you cannot shrink." He groaned some more. "Now we need to figure out how the hell we…" Brainy stopped talking, his currently purple eyes widening as he turned to look at another tunnel that was right above them. "Shit." With that, he shifted to his cat form and ran off.

Not getting the chance to realize what Brainy did, he heard someone yell from above before feeling the boards beneath him shake. Spinning around, Mekt saw a card guard standing there, spear pointed at him.

Somehow, he managed to dodge the first attack, but the second time the spear grazed his shoulder, blood now on the tip when it retreated. Then, without an explanation, Mekt felt himself lung forward, knife in front. He listened as the guard gasp for a moment before falling back, red seeping out from his chest. Slowly looking down at his hand, he saw that the knife in hand had blood on it.

It should have shocked a normal person. But Mekt was used to blood.

… He just wasn't used to seeing it from another person.

He then watched as the body shriveled away, and out from it came a red glowing heart that floated toward and in him. His shoulder immediately healed, and the tear in his shirt was repaired, reminding Mekt of what Brainy told him about the life-force thing. He began walking away before spotting Brainy hiding. "Wish you told me what was coming."

The Cheshire cat barred his teeth at him before coming out of his hiding space and turning back into human form. "I'm not known for getting myself in situations. And now we know you're capable of putting up a fight when needed." He then looked back over at the hole Luorna vanished in. "But we still have the same problem as before."

Mekt began walking off, going through the tunnels and pathways as he prayed that maybe there was an exit his size that would lead him to where Luorna was heading. And much to his surprise, Brainy was still following. "Surprised you haven't decided to run off again."

"I need to keep an eye on you. I recall that you have a knack for getting into trouble. Mostly unnecessary trouble."

"What can I say? I'm popu-"

"Ye there!" Both Brainy and Mekt blinked at the sound of that voice that had a very heavy Scottish accent. Mekt looked up and saw another gnome creature looking down them. "White haired lad! Come up 'ere!" Not having anything else better to do, Mekt climbed his way up so that he was up where the gnome was. "Ye the savior they all talking about?"

He blinked in confusion. "… Savior? Me? I don't think so… However…" Mekt shifted before asking, "Would it be possible that you could help me though? I wish to become… small."

"Twisted ye say? Can't 'elp ye there, cause if I could, I'd go sideways meself."

"Not twisted." Mekt leaned down and raised his hand up to emphasize the correction. "Small. I need to be no bigger than a mouse."

"Well, I can't 'elp you, but the Fortress of Doors 'olds such secrets."

"… Fortress of Doors?"

"It was originally a Skool that contained many books of spells and potions, but since the Red Lord has taken over, 'e uses it as a fort." The gnome stopped talking when he heard something. "I need to go." With that, he shrunk and scurried off into a small crevice in a nearby wall.

Mekt climbed back down to Brainy. "Well? Is he right about this fortress place?"

"Yes, however, the whole place is heavily locked down, and you do not have any keys to get it."

"Not that getting locked out ever stopped me from getting into something," Mekt replied, getting ready to run off, only for Brainy to suddenly appear before him. "GAH!" He stumbled back a bit, then frowned. "Don't do that!"

"I think we'll need to find help for getting in." Brainy then smirked. "And I know just the people. It's the matter of finding them now, but I have a pretty good idea where they're hiding out." Brainy vanished again, leaving Mekt as he looked around. "This way!" Brainy's voice was coming from another one of the tunnels that led deeper down.

Mekt went down, and soon found himself at an edge, with several vines hanging from roots that were peaking through the top of the cave dangling before him. Taking a deep breath, Mekt took a few steps back and then made a running start and jumped for the closest vine. After successfully grabbing it, he began swinging from each one until he reached the other side of the river that ran through the place. Landing on his feet, he saw Brainy. "Can you please slow down? It's bad enough I lost track of Luorna!"

As he finally caught up with the blond, Brainy led him down another pathway, until Mekt saw two people. An old man, white beard and smoking pipe in hand, and a girl, the same age as Brainy himself. The girl saw them and immediately sprinted. "Brainy!" She tried to tackle him, but he faded out, leaving her to nearly trip and pout. "Not cool!"

There was a faint sigh, and Brainy appeared right behind her. "I don't understand the logic of tackling someone upon greeting them."

"Aw come on, don't be so stiff!" The girl slapped his back jokingly, before noticing Mekt. "Are-are you Mekt?"

"Yep."

"Aw, Brainy told me about you! I'm Salu Digby, but feel free to call me Shrinking Violet!" She then went up to him and looked up and down. "… You're a lot bigger than I expected."

"That would be called puberty," Brainy said non-chantey as he rubbed his back.

Mekt watched as the two continued fighting before approaching the old man. "Uh… who are you?"

The old man let out a puff of smoke before answering. "Salu's grandfather. Why… have you come down here?"

Before Mekt had a chance to answer, Brainy interjected. "He needs the shrinking potion."

Mr. Digby rubbed his forehead while sighing. "We're out of them. You of all people should know that by know boy. The spring that produced the potion is far out of anyone's reach from here."

"Yes, but you know the formula, and that the ingredients in the formula are in the Fortress of Doors, which is where we need to get to," Brainy argued before looking at Shrinking Violet. "He does know, right?"

"Yeah… buuuut…" She glanced to the side before saying the next part under her breath.

"A little louder, please," Brainy demanded.

After a moment, Violet finally repeated what she said louder. "We… don't have the key any more."

Mekt watched with amusement as Brainy's jaw dropped at that one statement. "WHAT?"

"When the Red Lord's guards came in, the key was left behind in the building that they established as their compound."

Brainy groaned while holding his face in his hands. Mekt glanced over at him then back at the old man. "… Where exactly is this compound?"

The old man raised an eyebrow. "Mm?"

"I can go grab it myself. Then after I do, we can go to the fortress."

"… Very well," the old man agreed, letting out a puff of smoke. "Salu will guide you there. When you bring me the key, I will… repay you." With that, the old man suddenly disappeared.

As soon as he did, Shrinking Violet grabbed his and Brainy's hands and began leading them down another tunnel. "Come on, I know a short cut!" Soon, she brought them to an old railway and cart. "Hope in!"

"Goodbye." Brainy was about to fade away when Shrinking Violet picked him up and placed him inside the cart, not letting go.

Seeing no other option in sight, Mekt carefully stepped in. As soon as he did, Violet reached for the lever and pulled it back, and the cart began moving as she laughed. As it rolled downhill, Mekt found himself falling backwards, feeling the cart shake. As he tried sitting up, he realize that the whole cave was shaking, and that several rocks were falling, barely missing them… but did fall on the rails behind them, clearly indicating that there was no turning back.

"Everyone out!" Before he realized what was happening, Salu grabbed him and Brainy again before leaping out of the cart with both of them. Just as the cart was heading over a cliff.

And that would be when she accidentally lost her grip on Mekt.

"AHHH!" Not paying attention to what he was aiming for, Mekt grasped for anything on the wall to catch and stop falling. Thankfully he managed to grab something and watched as the cart plummeted into the water/acid below. "Too close for comfort," he muttered as he started climbing back up, keeping an eye on where his feet where placed as his hands searched around above his head.

Before he got to the top, he felt his hand touch something that was not rock… it felt… slimy… and soft… then he felt a pulse. Finally looking up, Mekt saw what he had grasped.

A tentacle… no, it looked more like a blood vessel… but it was moving. He felt another pulse, making him almost let go. But he couldn't afford it. Reaching his other hand above the tentacle-vein thing, Mekt continued climbing to the top, grunting as he stood up. "Okay," He began, looking at both Violet and Brainy, "What the hell is that thing?" He pointed down to where the vessel thing was, in a desperate need of an answer.

"You're just noticing them now?"

Mekt remained silent when he heard Salu's reply. He then looked around carefully, realizing what she meant. The veins were everywhere – coming out of cracks in the surrounding stone, moving constantly as if looking for something. None of this stuff was in Wonderland before.

"… What the hell?"

"Their part of the Red Lord." Mekt looked at Brainy in confusion. "He's always had them. Anyplace in Wonderland that is under his control have these, including his palace. They act like extensions, and when something like an uprising happens… he instantly knows."

"Soooo, basically, he already knows I'm here."

"No."

"… Huh?"

"The last time you were here, he didn't know about you until he actually saw you in person. It's possible that the veins cannot sense you in any way at all. Now, if he were told that you were here, that's another story."

"… Great," Mekt muttered sarcastically.

Brainy shook his head and began walking down a pathway to the side. Mekt followed after him, glancing at the walls where the veins bulged out.

It was… definitely creeping him out…

As they were further in one of the tunnels, Mekt saw Brainy and Salu searching the walls for something. "Found it," Salu said as she pulled out a box that was buried halfway into the wall, disguised as a root for where it was sticking out.

Mekt watched as Brainy tore off the root-guise and opened it up, handing it to him. "Here. You won't be able to use it as much as the vorpal blade since you'll need to use meta, but it can do damage from a distance."

Nodding, Mekt reached into the box and pulled whatever was inside out. It was… a deck of cards. As he was examining them, he slightly pressed his finger against the edge of one, feeling a sudden sharp pain, like a paper cut. "OW!" He held his finger against his mouth and sucked on where he felt it throb, tasting blood.

"Please, be careful with those," Brainy groaned. "And whatever you do, do not point them at either one of us."

"Got it. Oww…"

Continuing on, Mekt found himself in front of a large compound, watching as Salu opened the doors up. "Ok, boys, charge!" With that, she ran in.

"Hold on," Brainy grumbled as he turned into a cat and went after her, followed by Mekt.

As soon as they were all in, Mekt heard shouting from a few floors above. As they went to the stairs after passing through several doors, several guards came down, charging at them.

Mekt at first was going for his knife when he remembered the cards. He pulled out the deck and felt something go through him, like a wave of electricity. Several cards shot out and went straight through one of the guards, then came back to the deck. Mekt saw blood come out from his mouth just before he began shriveling away like the one he stabbed earlier, once again leaving meta-essence in the form of a heart.

A sudden gasp from one of the other guards caught his attention, making him look as Salu stabbed one with a purple and green dagger while another one was lying dead, with what seemed like a gunshot wound in the head just before the guards started fading.

"Where's Brainy?"

"He went ahead, come on!" She grabbed his hand and began leading him away, the remaining meta-essence floating towards the both of them.

At the top of the stairs, several more guards appeared. Mekt managed to get two of three of them, while Salu got two. As Mekt was attacking the last guard, his cards suddenly felt cold, and wouldn't move. "Shit."

"You ran out of meta-essence, move!" Salu shoved him as she lunged at the remaining guard and stabbed him. "Hurry up and collect some!"

"Alright, alright!" Mekt went over to the nearly dissipated corpses and let the glowing hearts flow into him.

After going up another flight of stairs and killing a few more guards – Mekt being more careful with using up his energy, and tried using his knife a bit more, they found an entire hallway that had blood on all the walls, glowing hearts floating about. "… Guess Brainy got farther ahead than I though," Salu commented as she reaped up a few of the hearts.

"There you two are!" Hearing Brainy's voice further down the hall, Mekt saw that he was standing under a doorway, holding a gun in one hand while in the other he held up a key with a skull on the end. "I found the key, come on! They sounded the alarm when we entered. This place will be swarming with guards within moments, and I doubt there won't be any outside."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Indeed, as Brainy predicted, there were more guards surrounding the building outside, firing at them from a distance. The first guard Mekt had to get through was way too close as Mekt used his knife to stab him, which somehow resulted in the guard being cut into half, literally. As he was going to aim his deck at a guard who kept trying to shoot him, he heard a gunshot from behind him and watched as the guard fell backwards.

He turned to Brainy, who was holding up his gun as it was glowing. "Don't go using that deck recklessly."

"Guys! Up here!" Salu had climbed up one of the walls and was waving over to a door where green light was streaming through.

Mekt began climbing up the wall as Brainy simply faded away and reappeared next to Salu. He was halfway up when he felt someone grab his ankle and pull him down. "Ah!" Landing on the ground, the hand that pulled him down let go before seizing his throat, holding him up.

This guard was different. He wasn't wearing the same outfit as the others… Mekt struggled to get down before getting a look at the guy's face though. When he did, he instantly recognized it.

The red-skinned man holding him hadn't changed a bit from when Mekt last saw him.

"… Tyr?"

When he choked out the other man's name, he saw Tyr's eyes widen in recognition. "Why the hell of all people…"

Before Tyr got to finish the question, three bullets were fired at him, making him release Mekt as he barely avoided them. Seeing his chance, Mekt scrambled back up the wall and straight to the green light past the door, following Shrinking Violet.

The moment he stepped through, for a moment he felt weightless, then found himself at what seemed to be a dock, in an area he didn't remember going to at all. He then heard Brainy grunt, watching as the green boy appeared, and suddenly the door turned into a stone wall. "There, they can't follow us. Vi, where's your grandfather?"

"Down this way." The short girl led them down the docks, where indeed the elder man was, along with some kind of flying machinery that looked similar to a blimp. "Gramps! We got the key!"

"Good, good," the old man nodded. "You three just sit, and be sure not to fall, and we'll be at the Fortress of Doors soon enough."

Brainy and Shrinking Violet got on before Mekt, who looked at the seating, noting that he better not lean over the front since there was nothing there to keep him from plummeting down to his death.

As soon as he got on, the old man began moving the blimp away from the docs, into what seemed like pure darkness, with only a lamp in the front as a light source.

As the flight continued, Mekt felt himself starting to drift off.

 _No, no, you are not a child Mekt, you are not going to fall asleep! Especially before Brainy!_

However, he then saw that both Salu and Querl were already asleep, the latter in his cat form curled up on Salu's lap.

Unable to fight it any longer, Mekt soon went to sleep, curled up in the corner.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Kell groaned while rubbing his neck, cursing the staff dorms and their beds. At least he didn't have to worry about cleaning any of the bathrooms for a while.

However, he was set to help Dr. Wilson and Nurse Mallor again this morning. On the top floor. Yay. He got to see the psycho boy.

"Hey Kell." Hearing his name, Kell saw another orderly behind him, who's name he kept forgetting. "So where are you damned to for today?"

"Top floor, with Wilson."

"Ohhh, is it that Korean guy? With the white hair?"

Kell raised his eyebrow and asked, "Mekt?" After the orderly nodded, he then asked, "He's Asian?"

The orderly gave him a strange look. "Uhh, yeah! Couldn't you tell?"

"… Nope."

The orderly gave him another strange look. "You're not good at noticing details are you?"

"What's that suppose to mean?" Kell felt anger starting to boil inside him.

"N-nothing," the orderly quickly said before someone down the hall called him. "Uh, bye!"

Kell growled before continuing on his way. "I do pay attention to details… but why the heck is his name Mekt if he's Korean?"

Baffled by his new discovery, Kell continued his way up the stairs and down the hallway to Mekt's room. He made sure to look into the window first to see if either the doctor or nurse was in yet.

They weren't… but then Kell noticed something else.

Mekt was sitting up, rabbit right next to him… and was doing something.

Curiosity getting the best of him again, Kell opened the door up and went inside the room. He slowly approached Mekt, not taking his eyes off him. When he was close enough, Kell saw what he was doing.

He was drawing.

Not sure what exactly he was drawing Kell reached for the paper and tried to take it. As he did, he felt Mekt clutch to it, looking directly at him.

Kell stared back, unsure what to do with the new behavior, and tried taking the paper away again. This time, Mekt pulled it from his grasp and scooted away, clutching to his pencil tightly, staring right at him.

Kell growled at him, getting annoyed with this. "Come one," he muttered as he tried again. This time though, the same goddamn cat from before sprang out of nowhere and attacked his face again. "Fuck!" Kell tossed the cat away from his face when the door opened up again, both Dr. Wilson and Nurse Mallor walking in.

"What's going on?"

Rubbing the scratches from the cat, who was escaping through the window, Kell pointed at Mekt and the sheet he was drawing on. "I tried to take whatever it is from him, but he didn't let me."

Nurse Mallor approached Mekt, and slowly got the sheet from him, also being resisted like Kell was, so she quickly offered him a blank sheet. Mekt slowly took it and began drawing something new.

Mallor came back over to the doctor and showed him the sheet. "Has he ever done anything like this?"

"No, nothing remotely."

Still curious despite the recent cat attack, Kell came closer to look.

The drawing featured a boy and a girl, both teenagers. The boy was shaded and had three circles on his forehead, two different eyes – one normal while the other one seemed… nothing like a regular eyeball, while the girl had dark hair with a flower in it, with normal eyes.

"Should we give him his dosage now or-"

"No, let's wait for him to finish drawing."

After what felt like forever, it seemed like Mekt had stopped, so Mallor and Kell quickly fed him, still having to force-feed, before awaiting any further instructions.

Dr. Wilson rubbed his forehead as he looked at the second sheet before handing it and the first one to Mallor. "Mallor, see if you can get in touch with his family and ask them if he drew before."

"Yes sir." She then dragged Kell out of the room as Dr. Wilson approached Mekt and was beginning to examine his eyes.

Outside of the office, she had Kell stand outside and gave him the papers as she dialed the phone, after saying that she wanted him to grab something for her to eat as soon as she got a hold of the Ranzz family.

Kell looked at the second drawing as he leaned against the wall in boredom. This time it was a figure of a cat, with the boy's eyes and circles on its head, baring its teeth in a form of a grin.

Kell looked over to the room, wondering if it was suppose to be the same cat that came by.

The door then burst open as Mallor quickly grabbed the papers from him. "Okay, got them, now go get me food."

Kell sighed as he went away. "What exactly am I getting myself stuck in?"

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Tyr made his way through the portal, arriving in the throne room. He saw the rest of he council was there, all noticing as he walked in.

"You took long enough," Esper commented.

"Probably another mass of rebels," Hunter suggested.

"Where's the Red Lord?"

Before anyone of the council could answer, there was a scream from behind the throne, answering his question.

"Stop, stop, sto-"

The pleading was cut off by a choking sound, then replaced with silence. Tyr then watched as the Red Lord appeared, holding a rebel leader's head by the hair in his hand, covered in blood.

"What is it Tyr?" The Red Lord wasn't looking at him as he spoke, instead playing with a few hair strands of his latest victim instead.

Tyr hesitated at first, then started speaking, knowing it was better to get it over with. "Sir, it's… It's Mekt. He's back."

The Red Lord stopped caressing the lock of hair in between his fingers, looking up. "What?"

"He stormed the compound at the mining village with two others, and it seems like he's making his way to the Fortress of Doors."

He watched as the Red Lord instantly became furious at the news. "HE. IS. NOT. SUPPOSE TO BE HERE!" He smashed the head he was holding against the wall, causing it to spatter blood. "FIND HIM! KILL HIM!"

Everyone nodded and took off. Tyr glance behind for a moment as the Lord continued smashing the head into various surfaces, his tantrum clearly not going to be over for a while.

The sooner someone brought him Mekt's head, the safer their own heads will be.

* * *

I have a headcannon that the Ranzz family is actually Korean-descent after having a discussion with my friend that Lightning Lad looks similar to Markiplier with that goatee of his... and the hair XD

And let's face it, Kell is pretty oblivious to details. Why else do you think it took forever for someone to finish of Imperiex? Who was NOT Kell.

Please review and feel free to ask questions! either here or my tumblr at would be fine ^^


	4. Chapter 4

Well, this is the fastest update ever... i have been feeling rather pumped for this story lately, so that's a good thing with getting it done. And i have done some drawings for it as well. I might post them up on tumblr and/or DA soon ^^

Aslo, to re-emphasize that the setting is neo-victorian, it still takes place in the 31st century with different planets and such, except the technology is more steampunk-ish, and super-powers don't really exist in reality =w=;

oh and psychological medicine and treatments are sort of a mix of modern and victorian style treatments. it will be more apparent later on

why can't this website have that option of inserting art into the fics like AO3?

Also, trigger warning as this chapter does have curse words, as well as mentioning of self-harm.

* * *

"Garth, for goodness sake, sit down!"

Grunting at Irma's demand, Garth hopped with his one good leg as he tried to leave his bedroom. "No, I'm sick of being stuck in my room!"

The blond girl groaned before turning her head. "ROKK!"

"Yeah?"

"Help me out here, Garth's trying to leave!"

Within moments, the black haired man showed up at the top of the stairs, Ayla clinging to him while pouting. "You said you'd take me to the chocolate store!"

"Not now, your brother is being a wad again."

"Oh, okay. Can I help you sit on him?"

"Sure?"

His sister then charged at him full speed, whipping past Irma and into Garth, knocking onto the bed. "Oww," he growled as he tried to shove her off. But by then, Rokk and Irma also pinned him down. "All of you, off. I'm serious."

"Nope," Ayla declared. "Auntie Sue asked us while she went out to get kimchi to make sure you don't do anything dumb. Like hurting your leg again." She crawled over the other two and poked at said leg's knee.

"OWWW!"

As Garth moaned in pain, the telephone rang. "I'll get it," Ayla chirped. She jumped off and got the phone in the hallway. "Hello~, this is the Ranzz house!"

Garth began struggling to get up again, and then Ayla came back. "Garth?" She didn't sound as cheery as before. "It's the asylum. I'll… go check to see if there's anything to eat in the kitchen."

As soon as she said that, Irma and Rock both got off him and helped him to the phone in the hallway, where Dina was keeping watch and Ayla was going downstairs. Irma picked the phone up from the table where it sat and handed it to him. "Hello?"

"Is this Garth I'm talking to?"

"Nurse Mallor? What is it?"

"I need to ask you something. Your brother… did he… have a habit of drawing?"

Garth blinked. "Drawing? Yeah, he did draw a lot when we were younger… he hardly show me anything though… why?"

"He drew something earlier this morning. Two drawings."

"He… he did something? Did he say anything?" He clutched the phone closer as he started asking her questions. "What were the drawings? Did they have words?"

"Uh, no words, but one had two people and the other one had a cat… I think… it has three circles on the forehead, and so does one of the people in the other drawing."

"Circles?" His brain immediately clicked and he remembered the strange drawings of the boy that Mekt drew, that he would also draw as a cat. "Oh! He drew that before!"

"What about a girl with a flower in her hair?"

"Doesn't sound familiar right now, but I can come over tomorrow and che-" Before he finished that sentence, he felt something hit the back of his knee. He gasped in pain, with Irma and Rokk supporting him, just before she took the phone.

"Uh, no, he can't, because he's still recovering. And his Aunt doesn't want him leaving until he can walk without exaggerating the injury."

He shot her a glare before he took the phone back. "I'm fine."

"… I think it might be best to wait at least a week before coming. I'll let you know if there are anymore changes in his behavior… but if you could dig up some of these old pictures of his for the next visit, I'm sure the doctor would appreciate it."

"… All right. Should I let my aunt know so she could visit?"

"I think it would be appreciated," Nurse Mallor told him. Then there was some talking in the background. "I need to go now, but I'll be sure to keep tabs with you."

"Thank you." With that, the line went dead. As Garth set the phone down, Dina looked at him. "What?" She simply yawned before jumping down, trotting to the stairs before disappearing, probably so that she can get Ayla to feed her something.

"… Garth?" He looked at Irma, as he was guided back to his room. "What was it exactly?"

"The nurse said Mekt… did some drawings."

"That's a good sign, right?"

"Pretty sure it is," Garth answered.

"When… was the last time you saw him?" Rokk was raising an eyebrow.

"Just before the accident," he grunted, being lowered back on his bed.

"Ayla's never gone to seen him, right?"

"Too young for his ward, only 15 year olds and plus are allowed in without an adult. And we all know Auntie has…"

"Lost all faith in the last few years?"

Garth looked at Rokk, not liking the way he said that. "… Her last visit was when she saw that he cut his wrists open. I don't think she wants to relive losing another family member," Garth told him.

The room fell quiet, until Ayla popped in again. "Can someone help me with the stove?"

"Yeah," Rokk volunteered as he left the room, leaving just Garth and Irma.

After a minute, Irma looked at him. "Do you think he might be able to leave soon?"

"… I hope so."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Mekt was sound asleep when he felt something hit his face. "OW!" Eyes wide open, he saw Brainy in his cat form, sitting on the edge of the seat's edge, pulling his paw away. "What the hell?"

"Took you long enough to wake up," Brainy mused, swishing his tail back and forth. "We're almost there, so be awake and sharp."

Mekt sat up and groaned. He looked out in the distance, and saw it. The fortress. Two sets of high walls surrounding a building in the middle that seemed to be swaying side to side. The front gate to it all had several guards around it, so clearly that wasn't an option at any rate.

"I can fly you three into the first wall, but after that, you'll have to find the rest of the way in while I unlock the place," the old man told Mekt. "Salu? You have the instructions on getting through written down?"

"Right here!" The girl held up a folded piece of paper, putting it into her dress's pocket.

"Good. I'll meet you three inside when I can. It's too bad you can't transform yourselves into air, that would save you all the hassle…"

As they drew closer to the first wall, several guards did notice them and predictably fired at them. Thankfully they managed to stay out of range.

Soon the blimp drew closer to the second wall. Salu shrunk before jumping onto Mekt's shoulder and grabbing his bowtie while Brainy was on the other shoulder, digging his cat claws in. "Now, jump!"

Mekt stood up, carefully balancing himself as he eyed the nearest ledge right outside the wall. "I'll be surprised if this doesn't kill us," he mused before leaping.

Somehow, he did land on the ledge. He watched as Shrinking Violet jumped off and returned to normal size, and got Brainy off. "Try not to pierce me next time, will you?"

The cat merely blinked before resuming his human form. "I'll try."

Mekt nodded and looked at the area. The walls had tapestries hanging on them, all red with a twisted image of a heart and thunderclouds on the top. Red Lord's probably. Emerging from the wall, another massive tentacle was writhing, which was disturbing to watch. Just before it, there was a hole in the wall.

"Here we go," Salu said and began leading the boys in. "Stay close to the walls, we'll be less noticeable," she told them.

As they were on the other side of the wall, Mekt saw the center building. It was floating on a lone plane, disconnected from everything. The building's style reminded him of the pictures of Korean buildings his mother and aunt showed him several times.

"Uh, do we jump across?"

"Sure, and die in the process," Brainy replied. "It's safer to go through the maze." He pointed at another opening in the wall that led to a hallway inside.

"… Maze?"

Salu held up the sheet of paper she had out earlier. "We just follow the instructions Gramps gave me and we'll be fine."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"Oh, fuck fuck fuck!" All three were running away as fast as possible as several flying creatures kept pursuing them. "Fucking fuck!" Vi kept cursing as they ran. "Fuck you Boojum!"

Unlike the card guards, Boojums were way more agile, as well as dangerous. Mekt heard another one of them scream, feeling it hit him in the back. "Ow!" Finally having enough, he took out his cards and fired them, watching as they sliced through the creature, just before letting out a wail as it started burning away.

Mekt cringed at the sight of the flames, remembering the flames back at his home.

"GET DOWN!" Brainy shoved him down, raising his gun up and shooting at the next Boojum, making it retreat.

Mekt remained still before heading over to the heart the Boojum had left behind, letting it enter him and heal his wounds.

"Come on, last portal isn't far ahead."

"I swear, if we have to solve another puzzle," Mekt growled, "I will rip off the head of the next guard or whatever tries to attack us with my bare hands."

They had already encountered several guards while navigating the wall's maze. The wall was far larger inside than it was outside, it was like a vortex, and every part just led to more doors. At least he understood where the term Fortress of Doors was from.

"The proper order to me is often a mystery to me," Brainy said before looking at Mekt slyly. "You too?"

Mekt's only response was a growl.

After passing through the supposedly last portal – after trying to figure out which door it was – they were finally out of that horrible vortex. On the top of the second wall. Right above the tentacle Mekt spotted earlier. "I wish we could have just climbed the damn fucking wall instead of going through that shit," Vi said.

"Seconded," Mekt told her.

"We would have been spotted and with no advantage in fighting," Brainy merely stated.

Both Salu and Mekt groaned. As they began their way across the path laid out before them, there was the horrible screams of the Boojums again, as well as several guards running towards them, eliciting a groan from all three this time.

"I'll get the guards," Salu sighed.

"Boojums," Brainy muttered.

"Same." Mekt aimed at the closest monster and shot several cards at it, and thankfully it went down fast enough, but he ran out of meta. He ran for the heart that had replaced the Boojum, narrowly avoiding the second one as well as the fires from the guards, who Vi was swiftly dispatching.

He heard another gunshot as the remaining Boojum, swooped down, aiming for Brainy this time. Fortunately the green boy vanished, leaving the Boojum confused. As it searched for him, Brainy reappeared behind it and shot it in the back. Brainy vanished again as it was burning away, reappearing behind the remaining guards and hitting one with the end of his gun, forcing him on the ground before shooting.

 _He's really not the same kid from before…_

Mekt recalled the Querl he knew when he first came to Wonderland, the one who would criticize him and everyone else over the smallest things, and would leave him stuck in places out of curiosity to see if Mekt could get himself out of whatever it was.

Salu stabbed the last guard, before pushing him over the edge. "Alright, now let's get in before any more show up," she suggested as she wiped her dress a few times, the blood fading quickly.

After walking the whole way around, they found that there was a single window open of the swaying building. Salu once again shrunk, and Mekt picked her up and watched as Brainy faded away before reappearing inside. Jumping across with Salu holding on, he stumbled a bit when he landed.

"Well, guess we look for Gramps now," Vi suggested as she jumped down and returned to normal size.

The window behind them suddenly closed, and there was a locking sound when it did. Clearly no way to leave now.

As they opened up the door before them made their way inside, Mekt saw that the inside had some hints of Korean design. The wallpaper patterns were like the ones at Aunt Sue's place, not as bright and colorful though.

When they got to a room with a staircase that led up that had several doors that were nailed shut, Mekt saw partially open double doors. Going over to inspect them, he saw that inside was a theater. "Hello?" He ventured inside, calling out once again. "Anyone in here?"

"Keep your voice down boy!" Hearing Salu's grandfather, he spotted him down next to the stage, and began walking towards him. As he came closer, he saw that there were several shadows on the stage that were grinning. Children, judging from the shapes. They were all twisting about, reminding him of some of the other patients he saw at the asylum.

As soon as the three of them were with the old man, Salu crossed her arms. "Gramps, there had to be a faster way to get here than what you told me."

"Fast, yes. Safe, no. I'm not going to risk my granddaughters life," he defended, getting a nod from Brainy. "Putting that aside, I found out one of the ingredients to the potion I was thinking of isn't available, so we'll have to do the next best thing. You won't be able to change your size by will like me or my daughter, but you can easily fix it by other means."

He was about to continue when there was the sound of running outside. "Quick, you'll find the recipe in the library! Look for the Book of Bizzaro! Hurry! And you, drink this! I found it while I was looking for some of the ingredients! It will be helpful." He shoved a bottle over to Mekt's hands and quickly disappeared as several guards entered.

"There they are!"

"Shoot them!" All of them aimed their spears at them, almost getting the three of them before they took cover behind some of the seats and took out their weapons. Mekt quickly stabbed the closest one, sliced another one in half.

As soon as they finished with the guards, Mekt looked at the vial he was given. A light blue glowing liquid was inside it, with what looked like a fang inside. "… Do you guys know what this is?" He held up the vial for the two teens to see.

"It looks like a lightning potion. Very rare," Brainy commented. "It should allow you to use lightning based magic without draining the ability to use magic. Which will be helpful."

"Sounds good enough for me." Mekt popped out the cork and held the vial to his mouth. Upon drinking the contents, he felt something inside of him burn for a split moment. Gagging for a moment, he saw that lightning was visible around his hands. Just when another guard ran in, Mekt pointed his hands towards him, watching as the guard froze as soon as he hit him. He then aimed again twice in a row, watching as the guard collapsed, fading away.

"Seems like it works," Vi commented.

"Yeah…"

He then saw Brainy was heading out. "We need to go to the library. The Book of Bizzaro should be in there."

"Wait, what about them?" Mekt pointed at the children on stage.

"Those are the insane children. This is the only place they are remotely safe, we can't do much for them the way they are now," Brainy stated rather coldly. "Even if we did try, they probably won't take much mind the way they are now."

Silently, Mekt followed Brainy out of the theater with Salu. Back out where the staircase was, they went up the stair and through another set of doors. Through that one, Mekt found themselves in a large library with several floors and high bookshelves.

"Let's see, the Book of Bizzaro should be on the very top," Brainy said. "But it's in a secluded part, so we will probably have to find some way to get to it."

Mekt sobbed. "More puzzles?"

"Probably."

"What the fuck?!" Salu shrieked at the top of her lungs, having much resentment to puzzles at the moment.

While both Mekt and Salu lamented their misery, Brainy started searching the high shelves, disappearing over one of them. Mekt heard something move then, like a book being opened and closed with papers shuffled. He looked up and saw a large purple book flying away.

"We need to find each one," Brainy said as he reappeared in front of them. "There should be on each floor and should all look the same."

"Oh thank god it's not a chime puzzle," Mekt sighed in relief. Finding books like the one that flew away seemed better than the horrible puzzles he was forced to deal with earlier.

After they finished searching the first floor and found no more books to help them, the three of them went to the lone stairway to the second floor. As they entered, Mekt saw the text on the walls for the different sections were written in Korean. He didn't know what meant what, but he was able to read how the words were supposed to be pronounced. like.

"Mekt, hurry up!" He then saw Shrinking Violet and Querl were far ahead of him, both of them tipping over a large bookcase and had it serving as stairs to the next floor.

"My bad." As Shrinking Violet went up the stairs, Mekt and Brainy began looking for the books. Mekt found one hidden at the very back of one of the shelves, wedged in. After successfully pulling it out, Mekt watched as it floated out of his hold, and up in the same direction the first one went in.

He saw two more books flying along the same path, indicating the other two already found them. He went over to the book-stairs, climbing up carefully as it was rather steep. Making his way up, he saw the flying books were serving as a pathway to something at the highest point in the library, where the night sky could be seen through the ceiling. Catching up with Salu, they both climbed another stairwell to the next floor, and approached the edge of where the floor ended and the books were hovering a few feet away.

Salu was the first to jump, and Mekt followed. Each time someone got on on, the books wobbled, prompting both of them to be careful. As soon as they finished crossing, Brainy materialized before them in his cat form. "Took the both of you long enough."

Mekt took a careful look at what was sitting before him. It seemed like a book, but it was closed shut like a box. "Shit," he cursed.

"STAND ASIDE!" Shrinking Violet was on the other side of the book now, and suddenly had a running start before kicking it over the edge. Mekt, Vi, and Brainy watched at the book plummeted down to the first floor, opening upon impact.

"Tell me Vi, couldn't you think of a more gentle way to open it up."

"Less talking, more doing," she answered, and began hoping her way down, leaving a disgruntled Brainy as he vanished. Mekt followed Shrinking Violet's route down, landing a few feet from the book. He saw Brainy was already flipping through the pages while Vi watched.

"Found it." He went over to another bookshelf and pulled out what seemed like a blank book. "Let's see… mushrooms, sugar and spice… and poppy-blooms…" Mekt saw Brainy make a face at the last ingredient. "We better go see your grandfather to see what he needs us to grab."

"Got it," Vi replied. She then ran off in the direction they originally came in, "Short cut!"

Mekt quickly took after her, glad she wasn't taking of like Luorna. She began leading him and Brainy back to where they were earlier until they arrived at another set of double doors. Opening it slowly, Mekt saw a stairwell in the center of the room before them, and…

"Aw crap."

"What?"

"Boojums. And several guards."

Both Violet and Brainy groaned at the news. "Alright, let's just get this fucking over with," Violet growled.

Mekt went in first, and obviously was the first one the Boojum saw. He felt electricity weave through him and aimed his hands at it, watching as it screamed out in pain. It didn't kill it immediately, but the second time stunned it, making it plummet to the ground, which Mekt immediately seized the opportunity to stab it.

When he did, the monster exploded into flames, making him jump back. It didn't burn him physically… but he still felt it.

He kept staring at where the monster died, only brought out by his trance when he saw Brainy shoot a guard, instantly killing him before turning his attention to the remaining Boojum, as Vi was busy with the other guards as she pulled out what looked like dice and threw it. As it landed, a glowing pentagram appeared and from it, some kind of creature that reminded Mekt of a fox, only it was rather large and had nine tails instead of just one, emerged. As soon as Brainy noticed, he grabbed Mekt's hand and led him away, along with Violet, and the three of them went up the stair.

Mekt listened as the guards yelled in pain, and when they were almost at the second floor, the creature managed to jump all the way up to where they were and came up to them. It approached Vi, and started rubbing itself against her. "Aww, you were so good~ " Vi began cooing as she pet it, getting it to wag its tails and make some kind of sound, as if pleased with the treatment. "Did you enjoy eating those guards?"

 _Eating?_

The fox nuzzled her a bit before turning back into a dice. As Vi picked it up, Mekt saw that it had the carved figure of a fox with nine tails. It was the same as a picture of a creature Aunt Sue called Kumiho that she kept in her home.

Not sure how to react, Mekt continue following Vi, seeing an uneasy expression on Brainy's face. Maybe he should ask him about the creature later…

Shrinking Violet led him to the second floor and entered one of the doors. "Gramps! You here? Gramp?"

As he followed her, he found that she had led them down a hallway to a laboratory, where the old man was working with some kind of machine. He looked up at his granddaughter and a faint smile appeared on his face. "Good, you three are safe. Did you find the book?"

"Yeah, Brainy wrote down the recipe."

"Give it here." The green boy came over and handed him the book he wrote in and took from the library. "Mmm, mushrooms, I have that… plenty of spiced sugar drops in the cabinet, we can use that… you need to go to the plant nursery and bring me some poppy-blooms."

"Ew," Brainy grimaced.

"Which way is the plant nursery?"

"The door to the side of the hallway will take you there," the old man instructed before looking back at the machine before him and scowled. "This blasted thing is taking forever to get set!"

"Maybe Brainy and I can help," Vi volunteered. "It probably isn't as bad as multiple puzzles to open doors."

"Very well," the old man agreed. "You'll have to go on alone," he told Mekt."

Mekt nodded, not having a problem with that. Heading off by himself, he took the door that was on the left, and after taking a left turn again, he found the nursery. One of the plants to the side had remains of a guard next to it, and then he heard muffled shouting coming from inside, making him take a few steps away from it. "Nope," he whispered to himself.

After searching for a while, he finally found the section with the sign that said "Poppy-blooms". Leaning down to inspect the plant, he plucked the largest three, and took a careful look. The plant seemed innocent enough, reminding him of both poppies and snowdrops that he and Nura tended to in their mom's garden.

Once, he had made her a flower crown from the snowdrops, and she had made him one with the poppy flowers.

Feeling solemn at the though of his older sister, he didn't notice the set of footsteps that began to approach him from behind.

Quite suddenly, someone grabbed him from behind, forcing him to turn over and pushed him down on his back on the plants.

It was Tyr again. "Seems like you're alone," he commented, smirking down at him.

"Get off!" Mekt began thrashing as Tyr held him down, can't believing he let himself get caught like this.

"Sorry, can't. Lord of Hearts aka Red Lord is pissed off that your back, and made a rather explicate statement that he wants you dead." Tyr's eyes began studying him, making Mekt squirm under the other man even more. "Although… I think it would be a waste," Tyr confessed, his voice becoming voluptuous for a moment. "But I value my head more."

"Too bad." Mekt then kneed him in the crotch, then kicked him off as Tyr was writhing in pain, and zapped him just to make sure he wouldn't get up. Grasping the poppy-blooms, Mekt ran out of the place and closed the door, barricading it with the closest thing he found and took off

As soon as he got back in the laboratory, Mekt gave the old man the flowers. "Here, but we need to be snappy, there are more guards coming soon probably, along with Tyr… although I locked him in the other room."

Salu frowned. "Tyr? You mean that red-skinned guy back at the mines?"

"Yeah," Mekt confirmed.

The old man quickly worked on the machine, putting two of three flowers in a tube of boiling liquid, setting the last one aside. As soon as the liquid turned red from the now dissolved flowers, the machine poured it into a flask of blue liquid, turning it a purple color. "That should be it," the old man concluded before taking the flask and pouring the liquid into a medium sized vial. "There. Now, the way out and to the Vale of Tears is through the observatory, located in the library. I'll be heading out back to the village, so don't worry about me."

Salu took the vial hugged her grandfather. "Be safe Gramps."

"And you three as well," he replied before shrinking and vanishing.

She then turned to Mekt and gave him the vial. "Here, now let's get moving."

Just before they left, Mekt grabbed the remaining poppy-bloom, and stuck it into his pocket. It was probably edible, so he wanted to try it out.

As they returned to the library, Brainy directed them up to the top floor before ushering them in. Inside, a globe was spinning about with a telescope directed at it. Brainy began messing with some switches nearby, making it stop spinning, and then it opened it up to reveal another portal.

He watched as both Salu and Querl shrunk and climbed onto the telescope, just as some shouting was heard from outside. Quickly running to the telescope, Mekt drank the vial's contents, and felt himself shrink and got on the telescope, seeing both teens jump in the portal before him.

Following suit, Mekt felt the familiar sensation of passing through the portal, just before feeling himself being submerged in water.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Kell had finished his rounds with several other patients before Dr. Wilson dragged him away, back to the now usual routine of checking on Ranzz. After his two drawings, they had been observing him to see if there would be anything else. In the last two days, there hasn't been anything yet, but he still paid attention whenever Kell was in his field of vision.

As he and Nurse Mallor entered the room again, he blinked at what he was seeing. Mekt was sitting up on the bed, drawing again, with several discarded pictures around the room. Kell picked up the closest one and looked at it. This time, it had several shadow-like figures, all of them grinning in a disturbed way.

Nurse Mallor was collecting the other pictures before approaching Mekt. "Hello Mekt," She greeted, not getting a response. "May I see what you are drawing?"

When he made no response, Kell came over and tried to get his attention. "Hey," he said and pressed his fingers against Ranzz's forehead, making him look up. The patient's eyes locked on him and stopped drawing, letting the nurse take one of his finished drawings he still was holding.

As soon as she did, Kell removed his fingers from the white-haired man's forehead, who was still staring at him. He wasn't sure what to make of his expression though.

"Move please," Nurse Mallor told him as she pulled out a syringe and injected into Ranzz's arm.

"What's that?"

"Medicine," she answered.

"For what?"

"None of your business," Mallor told him.

After a while, Mekt began drawing again, and both Kell and Mallor left the room, leading him to the office. "Help me catalogue these," she told him as she gave him the pictures.

"All of them?"

"Yes."

He groaned and began looking at each one of them. Most of them had a slight macabre feeling to them, probably due to the fact Mekt was mental. The boy and the girl from before were drawn again, but this time they were running away from something that was too small to make out. In the next picture, it was drawn again, much larger though. It seemed like a decaying corpse with a skull for a head, consisting of only an upper torso.

After several more pictures, the corpse thing was drawn again… only this time it was on fire, contorted as if in pain. "This is odd," he commented before showing the picture to Mallor, who was writing things down.

"What?" As soon as she saw the drawing, her eyes widened. "Oh." She scribbled something down swiftly and set the picture aside from the rest of her stack. "Do any more of them have fire?"

"Not yet," he answered, confused on why she asked.

"Well if you find them, put them in this pile," she ordered while emphasizing where the drawing of the burning creature was.

After sorting through several more pictures, one of them had a picture of a fox with nine tails; another had some sort of lab equipment. The second to last one had some kind of bottle with what was probably a fang, claw, or even a horn.

The last one was the most peaceful to look at. It was some kind of flower. It had the pattern of a poppy flower, but the way its petals were formed reminded Kell of a snowdrop.

"Lemme see that," Mallor ordered, taking the picture. "Wow, this one is really good… maybe the doctor should have him do art therapy." She then started filing the pictures, leaving out only the drawing that had the burning monster. "I need to go find him. Don't leave."

As soon as she was gone, Kell saw that Mekt's file was sitting on the desk. Tempted, he picked it up and opened it to see an information sheet.

 _Name: Mekt Yun Ranzz_

 _DOB: February 14_ _th_ _2567_

 _Date Admitted to Arkham Asylum: November 13_ _th_ _2577_

 _Family background:_

 _Father: Luc Ranzz – Korean descent, adopted by farmers at age 2 and given an English name, native of Winath. Became a successful professor before meeting his wife and moving to Earth._ _ **Status: Deceased at age 41 YO, November 21**_ _ **th**_ _ **3076.**_

 _Mother: Perla Ranzz – from a family of Korean descent merchants/farmers, twin sister to Sue Yun, only aunt who is close to the family, was a mother of 5/6._ _ **Status: Deceased at age 42 YO, November 21**_ _ **st**_ _ **3076**_

 _Siblings:_

 _Nura Nal Ranzz: Older_ _ **Status: Deceased at age 18 YO, November 21**_ _ **st**_ _ **3076**_

 _Garth Yun Ranzz: Younger, twin to Ayla (first)_ _ **Status: Alive**_

 _Ayla Nal Ranzz (first): Younger, twin to Garth_ _ **Status: Deceased at age 4 MOs, August 1 3068**_

 _Ayla Nal Ranzz (second): Younger, youngest of all siblings_ _ **Status: Alive**_

Kell blinked in surprise. Three family members, dead on the same day. Was there an accident or something? And why did the mom's info have that slash between 5 and 6? From the looks of it, there were just 5… was she expecting when she died? And wasn't Winath that place that for some reason the people there were prone to have twins?

Before he could read anymore, he heard footsteps coming back to the room. He closed the file and put it back on the desk. Mallor came back in. "Doctor said you can go take your break."

"Thanks." He left the room, glancing back at Mekt's for a moment. He knew it shouldn't matter to him… but he was just getting more and more sucked up into Ranzz's situation.

Hoping this will be over soon, he went to the stairs to go have something to eat before his next shift.

* * *

Just to clarify, Mekt's wonderland is **NOT** going to be identical to Alice Liddell's wonderland. The original story probably served as an influence in it's creation, although Mekt's own idealization has differences. Hints of his family's background will be evident.

Also, Kumiho is an actual creature from Korean mythology. It is similar to the Japanese 9-tailed fox, except it is usually portrayed as evil, as well with a tendency to eat human flesh, usually focusing on either the heart or liver. I chose to use a Kumiho to replace the demon from the diabolical dice cuz like I said, Mekt's wonderland is different from Alice's version.

If i get anything wrong about Korean culture, let me know so i can correct it.

The vial giving powers concept is from a web comic called Ava's Demon, which is also inspired by Alice in Wonderland. It's an amazing comic (even though the artist is currently on hiatus to work on some kickstarter stuff. It also deals with some heavy stuff, but if you have in interest in a story that combines both hi-tech science fiction and magic, this is a pretty good piece of work, as well as gorgeous art.

Also, my friend Mothy and I have a head cannon that when enraged, SV will curse a lot. While still being sweet and stuff.


	5. Chapter 5

HAPPY HALLOWEEN GUYS! I managed to survive my finals - somehow - and I did the art I promised I would do ^^ I have it both on tumblr ( post/130481170336/) and DA ( art/Wonderland-564211041) and im using it for the cover image for this fic (yes i intentionally used the cover of the first game as a reference for drawing)

Just as a quick warning, this chapter mentions child abuse, so please proceed with caution!

* * *

Kell was running his usual rounds on the first in the morning when he heard a familiar meow. Looking at the doorway, he saw the same bloody cat that kept attacking him in Mekt's rooms. "Ugh, it's you," He growled, "What do you want?"

The damn thing simply blinked, still staring at him. Then he saw that the cat had some ivy vines tangled around its leg. "How the heck did that happen?" The cat ignored his question, opting instead to rub itself against a nearby chair to get the plant off. Not that it was having much success.

Wanting to get the cat out soon, Kell came over and began helping it. The cat batted at his hands at first, but when he was done, he found it rubbing against him, purring. "Uh okay…" The cat looked up and made a few meows. He then tried to take the cat outside, but when he was heading in, the cat followed him back in. "Seriously?"

The cat continued after him, even after he tried to toss it out. During his fifth attempt, he heard one of the nurses call him. "What?"

"Doctor Wilson needs you to take some of his files to the top floor." She handed over several files that were held together with a rubber band.

"Fine." As Kell headed to the stairs, he heard the nurse snicker. Looking down, he saw that the cat was still following him. "God dammit…"

"I think you can smuggle it in," the nurse said between her snickering.

Sighing in annoyance, he continued up the stairs. Cat still behind him. As soon as he was at the top floor, he shot the cat a look. "You really think acting all sweet is going to make me forget what you did to me several times?"

The cat simply meowed.

"Uhhhhggg…" Heading down to the office, he was about to open it up when he heard the cat let out a whiny meow. Looking over, he saw it pawing at the door to Mekt's room.

Hoping he might get it to leave by the window, Kell opened the door up. The cat stood there for a moment, then trotted in. He watched as the cat went over to Mekt, who was drawing with his rabbit at his side. It had been two week and a half since he had drawn the odd flower, and had kept producing different drawings since then. The only notable change Kell noticed was that it was less difficult to feed him…

The cat began playing with a few pieces of paper lying to the side. "Hey," he began while looking at the white haired male, "Keep an eye on that thing." He didn't get a response, unsurprisingly.

As soon as he went inside the office, he saw Dr. Wilson looking through several papers. "You seem busier than normal."

The doctor groaned. "A girl committed suicide last night… hung herself. I'm going through the papers to set up her funeral."

"Didn't think you were in charge of that stuff."

"Well, sometimes their only relatives put in false information when they leave people here… So the duty falls to me to see it through." The doctor signed something before putting it in a stack that was no where near as large as the one he took another paper from and started reading.

Kell walked out of the room, not making a single comment. He was nowhere near surprised to hear that statement from the doctor. People weren't exactly the most caring creatures in the world… whether or not they were sane.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

As soon as Mekt realized he was in water, he began swimming to the surface, gasping for air as soon as he made it. Making it to the shore, he saw a grumpy and wet Cheshire cat, shivering right next to an equally wet Shrinking Violet. "Guess that part wasn't planned?"

Brainy let out an angry meow, shaking himself a bit before resuming his human form. "It was the fastest way."

Mekt ran his fingers through his damp hair, and started exploring the area. Every plant seemed much bigger than him, making him note to watch out for insects. After a while, he saw something was tied to a fallen branch that was stuck in the mud. Looking at it, he saw it was a note and that it had Luornu's rabbit stamp on it. He took it off the branch and unfolded the note, being quick to avoid being stuck in the mud.

 _Hey, Mekt, sorry for forgetting you can't shrink ^^' I_

The first sentence ended abruptly and everything else was written in three different handwriting styles.

 _What, no, we're not sorry; you're the slowpoke!_

 _Sorry about Orange! Me and Purple will have a talk with her!_

 _This is Purple – we're trying to lie low so that none of the Lord of Heart's goons find us. We'll be waiting for you and Brainy further in the woods. Peace out._

Mekt folded the paper up again and went back to Brainy. "Hey! Found something."

The boy grouchily looked at him, and saw the note. "Let me see." He took the note and read it, and sighed. "Great, that's the highest point of the Vale…" He folded the paper and stuffed it into his pocket. "Vi? You ready?"

"As I'll ever be," she groaned. She stood up and stretched.

The three of them started making their way through the tall grass. As they were walking, Mekt heard several rocks falling over what to him at the moment was a large cliff with large waterfall. As they came closer, he saw several large insects dressed in military uniforms on the top of the cliff, shoving the boulders over the edge.

"Stay close to the wall," Vi instructed as she began inching along the wall as close as possible.

Doing so was easier said than done – the water had made the rock slippery, and there were a few times where he almost fell off. As they came closer to the top, Mekt saw Brainy pull out his gun before climbing up the last ledge, still trying to stay hidden.

"There! One of the rebels!"

"After him!"

"Fuck," Vi hissed.

She and Mekt scrambled up to see Brainy shooting at what seemed to be ants, who were twice Mekt's size and began firing rifles at them. While Mekt managed to zap a few, Vi pulled out her dice and threw them, and the Kumiho appeared, which was also larger than the rest of them – maybe four times the ant's size. As soon as the ants saw it, they all stopped attacking and froze.

"SHIT, A FOX!"

"RUN!"

The ants began to scatter, but the fox quickly trampled some of them as it started pursuing them, leaving green bloody paw prints. It seized one ant by the head, lifted it off the ground, and began shaking it furiously, like a puppy with a rag doll.

"Good job girl!" Vi ran over to Brainy before picking him up and carrying him over to the tall grass, Mekt right behind them. "Keep up the good work!"

"Uh, is it okay to just run off and leave the fox?"

"Hongryeon? Yeah, she'll be fine. She'll tire herself out and come back soon."

"… How long have you had her?"

"Four years. I found her in an old warehouse some rebels used."

"Did Hongryeon… always have a violent streak?"

Brainy squirmed in Salu's hold, letting out another growl. "Put me down," He ordered angrily, reminding Mekt of an actual cat.

Vi was setting him down when Mekt heard something. That probably wasn't the fox. Heading in the direction he heard it from, Mekt searched the grass when he tripped over something, landing on his face. "Oww, dammit," He muttered as he stood back up. As he was looking up, he saw an ant staggering about.

"Oh, he's killin me… killin me from the inside out… forgive me, forgive me!"

Mekt was about to go closer when he was suddenly pulled back further in the grass. Vi's gloved hand covered his mouth as she and Brainy continued pulling him away. "Don't get near him," She hissed quietly.

He tried to ask why, but the only thing that came out was a muffled sound as they hauled him further. Finally, they released him. "What the hell was that about?"

"He… was infected."

Mekt raised an eyebrow. "Infected with what?"

Brainy groaned before he began to explain. "… The Red Lord… keeps the insect army under his command with the threat of infecting them with a type of fungus called cordyceps. It grows from the inside out, affecting their brain before they die from atrophy."

"So it's just the insects then, right?"

"… No. After the fungus sprouts from the insects, they release poisonous spores. We won't get infected, but we will be poisoned, and quite possibly die from it, given the only antidote takes 3 days to make and the poison can take just one."

"Oh. That's not good."

"Indeed, so please refrain from doing anything too dumb." Brainy began walking away, constantly looking around.

"You're on edge more than before," Mekt commented, "Anything else in the area I should know about?"

"… Let's just hurry," Brainy ordered. "I want to meet up with Luornu as soon as possible."

As they kept walking further in the blades of grass, Mekt heard something running towards them from behind. Looking back, he saw it was just the fox, tails wagging happily. As soon as she found them, Hongryeon began nuzzling her nose against Mekt, making a small purring sound.

"Uh, good fox…" Mekt hesitantly petted her, which earned an extra-affectionate nuzzle. Just before she let out a painful yelp, shocking Mekt and the other two. He watched as Hongryeon looked back at one of her tails and suddenly lunged for it. A split second later, Mekt saw her holding the same plant he saw at the nursery back at the Skool, only its roots were moving… and it had some blood on the petals. Tossing the plant away, the fox began to nurse its tail, which seemed to have been bitten.

"Oh great, Blood Roses," Vi groaned.

"Blood Roses?"

Brainy groaned, "You remember the rose maze you got stuck in before? When you first came?" After Mekt nodded, he continued explaining. "Blood Roses are the Red Lord's favorite, and before they just were in the dungeons at his palace… but now he has distributed several of them across Wonderland, including the Vale."

"I saw one back at the Skool, but I'm pretty sure it ate a guard?"

"They don't have sympathy towards other minions of the Red Lord, who doesn't see it as a problem… actually, he see's them as another way to keep the rest under control."

"Alright, so what should I do if see one?"

"Go for the petals or see if you can uproot it. Hongryeon took care of that of that one thankfully."

The fox had finished attending the injured tail and resumed rubbing her face against the trio. Brainy made another annoyed growl at the motion, sounding cat like. "Vi, get her to go back to the dice,"

"I doubt she wants to," She said plainly as she gave the Kumiho a scratch under the chin.

Brainy groaned and continued on, still looking around in an alarming matter.

Soon they were making their way next to a stream, the fox playfully dipping her paws in the water before flicking them, splattering the smaller beings with a few drops. "Vi," Querl began again, sounding angrier. "Get. Her. Back. In. The. Dice."

"Alright, fine, grouch," Vi muttered before looking at Hongryeon. "Sorry girl, you gotta take a nap for a while." The fox whined. "Do this and I'll let you teeth my uncle's boat when we get back." There was a chirp from the fox at that, and then she turned back into the dice. "There," she told Querl as she showed him the dice, "Satisfied?"

"Yes, thank you," he said in a relieved tone. "Now she won't draw unwanted attention."

Mekt raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Looked like to me that the guards were afraid of her, so wouldn't they just run off?"

"It's not the guards I'm worried about," Querl confessed.

"Then who?"

Brainy didn't answer.

 _Just another mystery._

As long as he had known Brainy, the boy would disclose very little information about himself. Mekt knew nothing about his family, where he was born, where he grew up, or if he ever had a home. There was probably a good reason for the secrecy though.

Further down the stream, there was a sudden noise from the other side, a low groaning like sound, making the green boy jump. "Shit."

"What, what is it?"

"Just run! And don't let them find you!" Brainy suddenly vanished, leaving Mekt and Salu.

The same sound was closer the second time Mekt heard it, prompting both of them to hide among some nearby mushrooms. Mekt was expecting guards of some sort, but instead he saw two tall beings... with mouths stitched shut and glass eyes. They silently moved about, before taking off as quickly as they came.

"Oh no," Vi gasped.

"What? They with the Red Lord?"

"No, but their bad news… especially for Brainy."

Before Mekt could ask why, there was a loud yowl… from a cat. Brainy. Vi suddenly took of in the direction where the yowl came from, looking alarmed. Mekt followed after, and as soon as he made his way to another clear spot, he saw that one of the beings had caught Brainy in his cat form, forcing some kind of collar on, while the other one held a cage that the Cheshire Cat was shoved inside.

Vi was running towards them, knife out in her hands. "You bastards let him go!" As she stabbed the figure that was putting Brainy in the cage, sand began pouring out of it. Although it still turned around and swung a long bladed spear at her, getting her arm. "Ow!" She collapsed on her knees, and the two tall beings took off, but not before the one that had sand spilling out of it took the knife Salu dropped..

"Salu!" Mekt came over and looked at the injury. A large gash went down her arm in a diagonal line, bleeding. He quickly applied pressure to it before taking off the vest he was wearing and used it to serve as a makeshift bandage.

"Owwww…" She slowly sat up and looked at the injured arm. "Fuck. I'm going to need meta to heal it…"

"… What were those things? And why did they take Brainy?"

Shrinking Violet stood up while holding her arm. "Puppets… his mom's puppets."

Mekt blinked when he heard that. "His mom?"

"Let's just say everyone in the Dox family minus Brainy is… fairly screwed in the head. Do they execute whomever they please to, no. But there's a reason why Brainy is estranged from his mom." She began walking to the river, following the trail of sand that was left behind. "We need to go after him."

Mekt didn't argue.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The puppet must have had a lot of sand stored in it, given how far the trail was. As they continued following it, Mekt supported Vi as she walked so she wouldn't have to use so much energy, given her injury.

As they were passing a rotting log, Mekt spotted huge platters of blood next to it, where several insects were feasting on the flesh of what seemed to be a guard, leaving a glowing heart alone, which Mekt helped Shrinking Violet to reach so she could heal up. "What happened to them?"

"From the looks of it, I'd say it was Brainy's mom…" Her voice was bitter as she mentioned the apparent mother.

"… These folks of Brainy's… they're that bad, huh?"

"Yeah. They are."

"… He never told me about them. I tried asking several times before when I was smaller, but he never gave me anything."

Vi gave a small nod. "Sounds like him. He hesitated telling me as well. But after several months of hiding out with gramps and me… I guess he finally warmed up enough to give me the basics. And trust me, if it was me in his situation, I'd leave his mom's place as well."

Mekt let that sink in. The situation was that bad after all. "I hope he's okay."

As they continued on, Mekt saw several more dead guards lying about. One of them, and ant, had some kind of mushroom sprouting out from his body. "Careful," Salu instructed. "It's the fungus Brainy warned you about before. I don't think it released any spore yet… but let's not test our luck."

Despite her warning, Mekt crept a little closer to inspect. The longest stalks were from his head, before going down the rest of his body, curving up to the sky. All of them were red. They were clearly different from other kinds of mushroom and fungus he had seen in Wonderland.

"HEY!" Salu pulled him from the body, and kept dragging him away. "Geez, what am I, a baby sitter?"

"I was just looking-OW!" She grasped his ear as she continued hauling him in the direction the sand was leading them.

Until the trail stopped.

The puppet that Salu stabbed earlier had collapsed, barely crawling, as the sand coming out of them was now just a trickle.

"Looks like it lost too much stuffing," Vi commented as she swiftly took it's weapon that was dropped on the ground.

"What now?"

"Well thankfully, these things usually just stick to a straight path for destination and starting point, so we should be good if we continue on the same way. He is," she answered while pointing her newly acquired spear at the still struggling puppet.

Mekt looked down at the puppet, feeling the slightest pity for them before asking, "What should we do with it?"

Salu looked down at him. "I dunno… He can't really harm us now… let's just leave him. He can't die. Not the same way we do… plus he's just following orders."

"… Alright. If you say so."

Leaving the puppet behind, they continued on.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

After what felt like hours, Mekt and Salu found a large house that had the same three-dot symbol Brainy had on the doors and windows. "This is it," Salu determined.

Both of them went straight for the doors and tried to open them, but they were locked. "Shit…"

As they both started to pry the doors open with the spear Salu had, he felt the wooden planks underneath his feet dip and give way. Both he and Salu plummeted downward, both screaming. He braced himself for another rough landing like before.

He did land on his back again... but this time it was in something soft…

"Wh-what the hell?" He pushed himself up and saw that they both had landed in something white, in what seemed like an extravagant dining room. Mekt prodded at what he was stuck in, and realized what it was. Frosting. Vanilla frosting. He then looked at himself… and saw that he was covered in the stuff. "Dammit," he growled before standing up, finding himself sinking down in the sugary, sweet smelling substance. After five minutes of struggling to get out and to the edge, Mekt found himself sinking down to his waist. Officially pissing him off as he began to dig his way out.

As he raised his left hand up, he saw that he was holding chocolate cake along with the icing. As if on queue, his stomach growled. When was the last time he ate something? He tried to remember. They forced something down his throat down at the asylum because he didn't feel like eating… when was the last time he was actually hungry? Unable to remember, Mekt raised the sweet substance closer to his face, opening his mouth to eat.

"NO! NO EATING YOUR WAY THROUGH!" Jumping at the outburst, Mekt looked at Salu, who wasn't faring much better than him, as she was using the filched weapon to make a path. "We don't know what's in it! Let alone if it will make us change size! I don't want to deal with random size change at the moment. Plus then she'll know we're here!"

"So we have to deal with this shit? And do you know how long it has been since I've had an actual meal?!"

"Hey, I'm no happier about this than you," She said firmly as she managed to go forth a few inches. "Fuck I'm starving…" Suddenly, she fell forward, landing on her face. Salu swiftly stood up, spitting out whatever got caught in her mouth. "Ah! Gross! I hate vanilla!" She then took a few steps back. "What the hell was that?" She reached down to grab whatever made her trip. As she stood back up, Mekt saw what it was.

A skull.

"… I think I can hold off," he said as he dropped the cake he was holding, hunger no longer important.

"Great," she answered.

As the both finally made it to the edge, Mekt saw that they were on a large cake, surrounded by several other desserts and pastries. Jumping down, he found that the cake came clothes with ease, which was good news for him and Shrinking Violet. As they made their way down the table, they heard 'psst', coming from the other side of the room.

"Brainy?!"

"Shh!"

Mekt shut up on command, running in the direction where the voice came from. Reaching the edge of the table, he saw Brainy, still as the Cheshire cat, was placed in a cage that stood right before them. "Brainy," Vi whispered as she came closer, "Are you hurt?"

"Physically no," Brainy answered. "But you two better hurry and find a way out."

"Sorry, but we're getting you out first," Salu answered as she began searching for the door. When she found it, she tried to break the lock, but after several attempts with her spear, it stayed put. "How do you open this damn thing?"

He groaned. "Mother… the Duchess has the key." There was a hint of distain as he said 'mother' just before switching to Duchess.

"Guess we got to look for her."

Brainy sighed. "Good luck. She's not prone to showing herself. Ever since she flat out insulted Red Lord, he has been looking for her and wants her dead. Not accepting her as a prisoner, just flat out wants her dead."

Mekt hummed at the statement. The Red Lord usually just had people brought over first before execution… but if he wanted you dead without seeing you, you really had to piss him off… then again, he was in the same position at the moment… "Any idea where we could find her?"

Brainy flicked his tail in thought. "… She probably is upstairs, which is locked… but…" His eyes shifted to the side, "We might be able to lure her down… It might not work, but it will cut chasing her around out of the equation."

"Just say the word," Mekt replied.

"She has a particular bell she keeps in the cupboard," Brainy informed as he stood on his hind legs and pointed his front paw to the right, at a cupboard where the other puppet was hanging from, completely still. "If you ring it, she should come down here."

"Why?"

"… Let's say that bell was to warn her of either a particular someone who works with the Red Lord, or if I ever was in the area… she went into full detail when I was brought there."

"I'll get it," Vi volunteered before pulling her dice out and handing it to Mekt. "Here, just in case." She then began running to the side and jumped down, leaving the two boys be.

"… Brainy…" Mekt looked at the green cat, who's ears twitched. "… Did your mo… the Duchess," he corrected, feeling that the relationship was too awful for her to be called a mom, "Ever… hit you? Is that why you stay away?"

Brainy stayed quiet for a moment. "Hit? No… but she never had any good emotional attachments to anyone… ever. I ran away after a particular dispute… when she wanted to have me… undergo a treatment."

"For what"

"… My emotions. She said they would cloud my decisions in life, make me do irrational things." Brainy hung his head as he told Mekt. "I was scared… she told me it was just my emotions… but I didn't want to do it… so I ran. I found someone who said they could give me an ability to hide from her… and that's how I'm able to turn into a cat. It worked… until a few months ago, when she sent a letter, saying that she found out about me from a rebel she caught breaking in."

"… Sorry."

"Why are you apologizing? You're not responsible for how she was."

"No, I'm sorry that you got a sucky person as your mom… not that she deserves to be called that."

After a moment of silence, Mekt found Brainy rubbing against his hand, purring. Feeling himself smile at the rare sign of affection, he gave Brainy a small scratch behind the ear.

A high-pitched bell went off, making Mekt look over at the cupboard, seeing Shrinking Violet hopping down. "DONE!"

As she was making her way across the floor, there was a low rumbling sound, and Mekt saw the door at the other side of the room opened up. A woman with three dots on her forehead, green skin, and blond hair came in, eyes immediately landing on Vi. "Hmm. False alarm." She held up her hand, holding a gun that was similar to Brainy's, and shot at Vi. Thankfully, she managed to take cover and climb up to the tabletop, hiding behind a stack of meringue cookies.

The Duchess vanished, then reappeared on the table, about Mekt's size now. Her eyes looked at him coldly before shifting them to look at Brainy. "Who is this?"

"You should have a good idea yourself," Brainy hissed.

She sighed. "Why are you with him then? He's just another hassle that will drag you down. I knew I should have made you undergo that treatment when you were born. You're just as dysfunctional as those mad children."

"Don't," Mekt snarled, barely believing that she flat out told Brainy that, "Say. That. To him. You don't know what he's like."

She merely cocked her head to the side. "You're a danger here. You're state of mind is unstable. Out of place. I'll have to take care of you before I take care of my son's condition. Who knows, perhaps the cook can make a decent meal out of you."

 _Oh, that explains the skull in the cake._

"I doubt that I'm edible," Mekt retorted.

"Well, not as a full meal, but perhaps a decent appetizer… or half decent." The gun she was holding changed in size as she held it up and fired. Mekt managed to avoid it, and shot a bolt of lightning at one of the marshmallow desserts next to her, hitting the base. The spot where he hit began to melt, and collapsed towards her. It bought him enough time to run and hide, but she moved out of the way before it fell on her.

She fired several more shots, nearly getting Mekt each time. As she was preparing for another shot, something was thrown at her – a hard piece of candy, about the size of a fist. It hit her on the head, making her stagger around. Mekt looked in the direction it was thrown in and saw Vi plucking candies off of another cake and were launching them with all her strength at the Duchess. She then looked at Mekt and signaled him to throw something.

"What can I throw?" He then remembered. The dice. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the dice and threw it at the Duchess. With a puff of smoke, the Kumiho appeared and lunged for her. The Duchess used her gun as a shield, barely stopping Hongryeon's jaws from biting her. But she was pinned down by the larger creature, buying Mekt time to run over to where Vi was.

"You okay?"

"Just a little bruised up from that surprise attack," Vi answered. "Did you see whether or not she had the key for the cage?"

"No… but she might have it in a pocket or something."

Their conversation stopped when they heard the kumiho yelp in pain. Mekt saw that the Duchess had managed to free herself and had shot the Hongryeon in the leg. Leaving the fox, she started heading in their direction.

Mekt looked at Vi, "You go check on Hongryeon, I'll distract her."

"Got it."

Mekt charged out of where he was hiding and threw some of his cards at the Duchess, getting her face with them. "Ah!" She cupped her hand around where she had been slashed, and glared at Mekt. "You…"

 _Good, she's focusing on me._

She raised her gun again and fired, missing Mekt as he dodged behind a stack of cupcakes. Following the brief explosion from the bullet, he saw that two more skulls had fallen out. He seized both of them and threw them at her, only to have her shoot at him again.

He managed to aim lightning at her, striking her square in the chest. The Duchess staggered around for a moment before falling down, gasping in what Mekt assumed was pain. If she wasn't so much of a terrible person, let alone an abusive mother, he might have felt guilty. He came over to her, pulling out the Vorpal Blade. As he was getting ready for the final blow while kneeling down, he felt a sharp pain in his side. Looking down, he saw that the Duchess had a key in her hand… and was using it to impale his side.

He fell on his knees, gasping in pain, quickly applying pressure to where he was injured. The key stayed in place, and he was hoping at the least it was the key to the cage. He watched as some of the blood landed onto the wood beneath him. It was a lot.

She then stood up, clearly angry, and seized him by his hair, holding him up before speaking. "If you think you can save whatever is left of that disjointed mind of yours, you are sorely mistaken."

"You don't know that," He spat at her. "I think it's in recoverable condition."

"Are you certain? Especially…" she paused. "When you're confused about your own identity?"

Mekt felt his heart stop at that implication. "… What?"

"… I know what you are," the Duchess hissed, gripping his hair some more. "And so does the Red Lord's council. And I'm certain that the majority of people in your world will show pity towards an oddity such as yourself. Whether or not your mind is in one piece. The good news is that they will probably correct you."

That was all she said before Salu and Hongryeon ambushed her from behind, the former stabbed her in the back with the spear she had. The Duchess released Mekt as she collapsed, to which Hongryeon used her large jaws to maul her throat. There were a few seconds of her choking on blood before she finally stopped breathing. The red heart that emerged from her went to the fox, who still had her jaws clamped on the corpse's throat. Mekt watched as the wound on her leg faded. Guess his wound won't be healing soon…

"Mekt," Salu started, seeing his injury, "How bad-"

"It's not too deep," he told her so that she wouldn't worry so much. "At least it's the key…" He stood up and began walking towards where Brainy was still trapped in the cage, kneeling down. Carefully pulling the key out and applying more pressure to the wound, he stuck the key into the lock, and much to his relief, it worked. The door clicked open, prompting Brainy to jump out.

"Someone get this off me!" He tried to gnaw off the collar he was wearing, which Salu quickly removed. As soon as the collar was off, Brainy turned back to his human form, and looked back at Mekt. "Let me see the wound! NOW!"

Mekt hesitantly adjusted himself for Brainy to see where he had been stabbed. Now that the key was out, the bleeding had increased, the dark red blotches staining his shirt . The shorter boy vanished, and Mekt saw him reappearing at the cupboard, searching it for something before reappearing next to Mekt again as Salu and Kumiho was supporting him. "Here," he said as he unscrewed the lid off a jar and tipped it into his hand, making several round pieces of what seemed like some of the pills he took back at the asylum.

"Wh-what?"

"They'll help with healing you up… although you will find yourself going back to your world."

"How am I supposed to get back then?"

"You'll switch in and out. It will be at random, although if they have a counterpart to this, you should see if that helps with traveling back and forth."

Hesitantly, Mekt took the pills and swallowed them. Then everything went black…

And then he blinked. Once. Twice. And then he saw he was back in his room… the one in the asylum. Running his hand over where the key had impaled him, he felt that it was healed up.

 _It worked… but how long will I be stuck here?_

Forcing himself up since he wasn't restrained at the moment, he heard a familiar meow. Looking down, he saw that it was the same cat as usual. They jumped up to the bed and began rubbing their head against his hand, much like Brainy did before.

"Hey there," He greeted before giving them a few scratches in the head, prompting it to climb onto him as it increased the nuzzling, eyes wide at the action. "You like being pet, huh? First time anyone petted you?" The cat let out a long series of meows as a reply before their attention focused on the window, to where they jumped over to and began batting at something.

Curious, Mekt got up and looked out past the bars that were placed in front of the window. It was cloudy outside… but there was a mildly warm breeze coming in…

As he was distracted with looking outside, he was interrupted by the sound of the door unlocking. Turning so that he could see, he then heard two voices outside – a gruff male voice and a more feminine one.

"Why am I stuck with you again?"

"Cuz the doctor has more than enough paperwork to make anyone crazy. Now take this stuff in while I grab a few things."

The male voice groaned, and the door was then pushed open and a well-built man with dark hair that was a mess walked in… then Mekt saw that he had the same eyes as the figure from before.

"… Who are you?"

* * *

Just a few quick end of chapter notes:

I couldn't decide who would be the mock turtle, so i decide to alter the section where the duchess was encountered... plus now i can do more Mekt and real world interactions. In the original story, the cheshire cat belonged to the duchess, so i figured to make B5's mom the duchess... but in the comics, she's no where near the ideal mom standards... I'M SO SORRY HE HAS A CRAPPY MOM, FORGIVE ME MY GREEN ANGRY SLICE OF PIE.

The name Hongryeon was borrowed from a korean myth called "Janghwa Hongryeon jeon", and translates to "red lotus"


End file.
